About a Liquid Menu
A liquid menu contains the liquid food items (broths, juices, pudding, supplements, etc.) to be served to a resident or patient who is assigned a liquid diet (clear liquid diet or full liquid diet).
In the MealSuite system, a liquid menu is created as a subtype to a main menu type (standard, snack, special event, also available). When a person is assigned a liquid diet, they will not be served from the main menu, but rather from the liquid menu that is scheduled and associated with the main menu type.
To create a liquid menu, you have the following options:
- Copy an existing liquid menu as a base and modify it as needed.
- Create a new blank liquid menu from scratch and add items to it or copy menu items from another menu to it.
Printing Liquid Menus
- To print a menu report of a liquid menu, select the liquid menu from the Search by Menus field in the base settings for menu reports, and then from the Liquid Diet field, select the liquid diets (clear liquid, full liquid, tube feeding) to print the items associated with the liquid diets.
- Liquid menu items will automatically populate on people reports, such as the Tray Menu Tickets Report (People) and the Person Specific Select Menus Report (People).
Forecasting for Liquid Menus
You apply forecasting to a liquid menu when you schedule the menu.
If the liquid menu has choices, then the Percentages Forecast Method, the Set Method By Meal Forecast Method or the Census Forecast Method can be applied.
If the liquid menu does not have choices, then the Total Needed Forecast Method or the Census Forecast Method can be applied.
-
If using percentages forecasting, then the default forecasting percentages can be adjusted directly on the menu (see Adjusting Forecasting Percentages on a Menu) or on the worksheet (Overview of a Forecasting Worksheet > Adjusting Percentages). If needed, you can then manually adjust the auto-calculated serving amounts, which is done on the forecasting worksheet; see Manually Adjusting Serving Amounts on a Worksheet for more information.
- If using total needed forecasting, then the forecasting amounts can be adjusted directly on the menu (see Adjusting Total Needed Forecasting Amounts on a Menu) or on the worksheet; see Manually Adjusting the Serving Amounts on a Worksheet for more information.
Note that when you adjust the serving amounts on a forecasting worksheet, the worksheet will lock, meaning any forecasting auto-calculation no longer updates the worksheet so as to not override the manually-adjusted amounts. See Locked Forecasting Worksheets for more information.