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Enabling Room Delivery for a Residence Area

Kevin U
  • Updated

Enabling Room Delivery for a Residence Area

For the system to be able to indicate meals and snacks are to be served to a residence area, that residence area first must be enabled for room delivery. To enable a residence area for room delivery, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the Residences Builder screen. 
     
  2. For the residence area to be enabled with room delivery, select its ellipsis and click Edit Area (first screenshot below). The Edit Area modal appears (second screenshot below). 

    edit_area.png
     
    edit_area_enable_room_delivery.png
     
  3. Select the Enable Room Delivery check box, The screen refreshes with additional fields, as seen in screenshot below. 

    edit_area_enable_room_delivery.png
     
  4. If the residence area is to support advanced ordering (AO) from residents/patients, select the Enable Advanced Ordering check box. Note that when you enable AO for a residence area, other AO settings will need to be configured after your finish with these current steps of adding a residence area (you will be prompted to configure AO settings in step 9 below). 
     
  5. If the residence area is to support the delivery of snacks, select the Enable Snack Delivery check box. 
     
  6. From the Menu Service Location field, select the menu service location (MSL) to assign the residence area enabled with room delivery. The MSL determines the menus that are available to the residence area. If your account only uses one MSL (i.e., the default MSL), then select it.

    MSL.png
     
  7. The Consolidate production to dining area field can be left blank for now. This field is associated with the Kitchen Production Sheet in the Core System (Production) and the Service and Delivery Production Sheet in the Core System (Production). Click one of the links to learn more. 
     
  8. At this point you can save the residence area by clicking Save. If the residence area is supporting AO, you can set up the AO settings; to do so click the Save & Setup Advanced Ordering Settings button. The Edit: Ordering Settings screen appears (screenshot below) for you to set up the AO settings; refer to the separate instructions below. 
     

Opening the Ordering Settings Screen for a Residence Area

To open the Ordering Settings screen for a residence area, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the Residences Builder screen. 
     
  2. For the residence area whose ordering settings you want to open, click its ellipsis and select Edit Area (first screenshot below). The Edit Area modal appears (second screenshot below). 

    edit_area_fair_oaks.png
    edit_area_modal_fair_oaks.png
     
  3. Click the Edit Advanced Ordering button. The Edit: Ordering Settings screen appears.

    edit_ordering_settings.png

Entering Meal Delivery Times for a Residence Area

To enter meal delivery times for the residence area:

  1. If the Ordering Settings screen is not already open for the residence area, then first open it (as per above steps). 
  2. Click into the All Days section and the Active Meal Times - All Days modal appears. 

    all_days.png
     
  3. Enter the serving times for each meal period (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) that the residence area supports, and then click Add Meal Time to save your changes. 

Entering Exceptions to Meal Times for a Residence Area

To enter exceptions to a meal time for a residence area, complete the following steps:

  1. If the Ordering Settings screen is not already open for the residence area, then first open it (as per above steps). 
     
  2. Click the Add Meal Time Exception section, and the Active Meal Times - Exceptions modal appears. 

    exceptions.png
     
  3. Select the day or days in which the exception applies.
     
  4. For a meal service that has an exception for the selected day(s), enter its start and end times via the From and To fields. If a meal service is not to have an exception for the selected day(s), select its Same as Days check box, which displays standard times in the From and To fields and also makes those fields non-editable. 
     
  5. Click Add Meal Time to save your changes. 
     
  6. To add another exception, click the Add exception link and repeat steps 2 to 5 above.

Entering Service Interval Increments (i.e., Waves) for a Residence Area Enabled for Room Delivery

If the residence area enabled for room delivery is to support orders coming from residents with the advanced ordering service type (either from the Touch app or the Portal app), or paid pickup and delivery orders from a POS station or the Portal app, then service interval increments (i.e., waves) need to be entered for the residence area to allow staff to manage in a staggered manner the number of orders being placed by that residence area. 

Service interval increments translate into pickup/delivery times on the front-end ordering apps (Touch app, POS, and Portal app), as per example screenshots below. 

Example scenario: Assume that a wave is set for 15 minutes for breakfast, with 2 meals served per wave. If the 9:30 to 9:45 AM wave receives two orders, then the 9:30 to 9:45 wave is not available as an option when the user is placing an order from a front-end app. 

AO_delivery_times.png

Touch app

pickup_times.png

Portal app - Pickup order

delivery_times.png

Portal app - Delivery order

POS_pickup.png

POS - Pickup order

POS_delivery_times.png

POS - Delivery order

  

 To configure the residence area to support service interval increments, complete the following steps:

  1. If the Ordering Settings screen is not already open for the residence area, then first open it (as per above steps). 
     
  2. In the Service Interval Increment section, select the service interval increment length for each meal period (Breakfast. Lunch, Dinner). For example, 10 minutes. 

    service_interval_increment.png
     
  3. In the Meal Orders per Interval section, enter the maximum orders to be served per wave for each meal period (Breakfast. Lunch, Dinner), by entering the number in the respective Maximum orders field (e.g., 2 meals for a wave). If there is to be no maximum for the meal period, then select the Unlimited orders option for that meal period. 
     
  4. Click Save Changes to apply your changes.

Configure Advanced Ordering Settings for a Meal Delivery Area in Touch Admin

A dining area (a traditional dining area or a residence area enabledfor room delivery) that exists in the MealSuite core system is represented as a meal delivery area in Touch Admin. There are certain advanced ordering settings that are applied to a meal delivery area in Touch Admin. See Configuring Advanced Ordering Settings in Touch Admin for instructions to do so. 

Consolidating Residence Areas Enabled as Dining Areas (Optional)

On the Kitchen Production Sheet and the Service and Delivery Production Sheet you can combine production amounts from residence areas that are enabled as dining areas. This is accomplished via the Consolidate production to dining area drop-down that is available from the General Settings tab (screenshot below).

consolidate_production_to_dining_area.png

For information on how each report looks when residence areas are consolidated, refer to the respective topics below: 

Consolidating residence areas involves first opening the residence area you want to consolidate, and then selecting the other residence area to consolidate into:

consolidate_residence_area.png

...and multiple residence areas can be consolidated into one residence area:

consolidate_residence_area2.png

Steps to Consolidate Residence Areas

With the above knowledge of how residence areas are consolidated, complete the following steps to consolidate residence areas. 

  1. From the left navigation sidebar, select Tools & Setup > Dining Areas. The Dining Areas screen appears, listing existing dining areas and residence areas that are enabled as dining area. When a residence area is enabled as a dining area, it is identified with a bed icon (icon_residence_area.png) in the Type column. 
     
  2. Click the residence area that you want to consolidate into another residence area. The slide-out panel for the residence area appears. 

    residence_area_dining_area_slide_out.png
     
  3. From the Consolidate production to dining area drop-down, select the residence area to consolidate into. 

    consolidate_production_to_dining_area2.png
     
  4. Click Save to apply your changes.
  5. To consolidate another residence area into the same residence area selected in step 4, repeat the above steps.
  6. With the residence areas consolidated, you can now set up and generate the reports. Refer to the appropriate section below:

Setting the Kitchen Production Sheet to Print Consolidated Residence Areas 

  1. Open the Kitchen Production Sheet settings (Production > Production Reports > select the Kitchen Production Sheet check box).
  2. Select the Dining Area Details setting.
  3. Select the Consolidate Residence Areas to Dining Areas check box (screenshot below).  

    dining_area_details1.png
     
  4. Generate the report.

Setting the Service and Delivery Production Sheet to Print Consolidated Residence Areas

  1. Open to the Service & Delivery Production Sheet settings (Production > Production Reports > select the Service & Delivery Production Sheet check box).
  2. Select the Consolidate Residence Areas to Dining Areas check box (screenshot below). 

    consolidate_check_box.png
  3. Generate the report. 

Setting the Delivery Sequence for Residents/Patients with In-Room Service

For certain people reports (e.g., Tray Menu Tickets), the report can be printed in the desired order required for residents/patients with in-room service (i.e., room delivery). This is accomplished by selecting the Delivery Sequence option in the Sort By field, as per screenshot below. To set the sort order for the Delivery Sequence option, see the separate article Setting the Sorting for the "Delivery Sequence" Sort Option (for In-Room Service).

sort_by_delivery_sequence.png

Disabling Room Delivery for Residence Area

To no longer have a residence area enabled with room delivery, complete the following steps:

  1. Open the Residences Builder screen. 
     
  2. Expand the building of the residence area. 

    expand_building.png
     
  3. For the residence area you want to disable room delivery for, click its ellipsis and select Edit Area (first screenshot below). The Edit Area modal appears (second screenshot below). 

    edit_area.png

    edit_area_modal.png
     
  4. Deselect the Enable Room Delivery check box (i.e., clear it), and click the Save button. A confirmation message appears. 
     
  5. Click Yes, Disable Room Delivery to the confirmation message. The residence area is no longer enabled with room delivery. 

FAQs

Are specific snack times created in a residence area enabled for room delivery, just as you would create specific times for meal periods in a dining area?

No. Specific snack times are not specifically created in the system. When a snack menu is scheduled, the generic snack times of Snack AM, Snack PM, and Snack HS are listed. 

What report prints a list of residents with in-room service? 

You an use the People Roster report, which prints a list of residents with a column for Dining Area. For a resident/patient who receive in-room meal service, the Dining Area column states In Room. 

roster_report.png

Alternatively, you can open the People Listing screen, and sort by Dining Area. For resident/patients who receive in-room meal service, the Dining Area column states In Room. You can then export the people list to an Excel® file, from which you can make further edits to remove any information you do not need.