Food & Nutrition Services offers nourishing meals to patients, visitors, and Baptist Hospital East employees.

The department has about 115 employees and operates 24-hours a day/seven days a week. It provides great employment opportunities for growth and development within the department and hospital.

Food & Nutrition Services can be a stepping stone to careers in healthcare. Employees may take advantage of tuition reimbursement opportunities and become medical professionals. With a clean work record, many have transferred to other departments within the hospital to start brand new career paths while many have stayed and found the department is just right for them.

Patient service is a primary focus of the department. Baptist East’s patient meal service system is cook-serve meaning food is freshly prepared and served in the same day. The staff is able to maintain patient food temperatures during transport to care units and delivery of meals to bedside using a special pellet thermal system. Baptist East offers a seven-day cycle selective menu to inpatients on nearly every diet.

Baptist East’s Food & Nutrition staff is recognized in supporting the healing and recovery processes of patients with quality, nourishing meals and food service.

The department’s Hospitality Assistants interact directly with patients to help them complete daily menus and deliver their meals to bedside.

Dietetic Assistants work in clerical positions assisting nursing and patients to ensure they receive accurate menus and food orders according to doctors’ diet order prescriptions.

Diet Aides (considered an entry-level position) complete patient meal tray assembly working on hot, cold, beverage, or line starter stations of a tray assembly line and complete clean up after each meal period.

Patient Service Cooks and Cold Food Production staff prepare quality, nourishing meals to help bring the patient to a maximum state of health and strength.

Nourishment workers prepare and deliver between meal snacks and deliver tube feedings to inpatients three times a day.

Patient Meal Service Supervisors ensure patient meals are served at their very best and supervise 11 positions each day in quality meal service.


Registered Dietitians

Clinical Registered Dietitians (RD) require a four-year degree in nutrition/dietetics, successfully passing a national examination after completing a minimum of 900 field experience hours, and holding a Kentucky state licensure to meet employment criteria. They provide medical nutrition therapy to inpatients and outpatients with a variety of diagnoses including diabetes, vascular disease, heart disease, kidney disease, critical care, physical rehab, psychiatry, pediatrics, neurological disease and oncology.

Registered Dietitians interact with an interdisciplinary team of medical professionals on a daily basis to coordinate the patient’s nutrition care. They review inpatient medical records and visit patients to assess their nutrition needs and status, educate on special diets, and provide care for tube fed patients and those on TPN (“food” fed through the veins).

Some also work as registry dietitians in Baptist East’s home health office and make home visits to patients. The dietary staff offers outpatient counseling by appointment only and requires the outpatient RD to be a Medicare provider.

Facilities

Baptist East has a very large cafeteria available to visitors and staff. Cafeteria Cooks, Grill Cook and Cold Food Production workers band together to provide a large variety of foods to meet a multitude of food preferences for the community served.

Food Servers and Cashiers work directly with visitors and staff to assist them in getting guests everything they need for a pleasant dining experience. There are also catering positions for in-house special functions.

Another entry-level position is Sanitation Worker who maintains sanitary conditions of pots, pans, dishes, silverware, floors, and more.

Store Room Clerk positions are also an integral part of the department, ensuring stock is properly shelved, dated, and rotated.

There is also a coffee shop for visitors that offers Waiter/Waitress and Grill Cook positions. Served in the coffee shop are a variety of foods including hot meals, cold and hot sandwiches, desserts, specialty coffees, etc. It is definitely a very busy area.

Look for these opportunities and apply online by clicking on Employment on the Career Center:

Diet Aide (FT, PT, PRN)
Dietetic Assistant (FT, PT, PRN)
Hospitality Assistant (FT, PT)
Nourishment position (FT)
Sanitation position (FT, PT)
Cold Food Production (FT)
Patient Hot Food Production (FT)
Cafeteria Hot Food Production (FT)
Utility Relief position (relieves cooks and cold foods positions (FT) Patient Meal Service Supervisor (FT)
Main Kitchen Supervisor (FT)
Cafeteria Supervisor (FT)
Catering position (FT)
Department Secretary (FT)
Clinical Dietitian (FT, PT)
Waiter/Waitress (FT/PT)
Grill Cook (FT/PT)

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