Becker's Hospital Review

33 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP 33 CEO / STRATEGY Geisinger's food service strategy amid the pandemic: Insights from senior director Steve Cerullo By Kelly Gooch A s the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., hospitals and health systems began rethinking their food service operations to address safety concerns and shiing patient volumes. For Geisinger, a 13-hospital system based in Danville, Pa., that meant developing a plan that would cater to facilities of various sizes, from a 440-bed facility to one with about 20 beds. e health system's approach before the pandemic was a model fo- cused on self-service, said Steve Cerullo, senior food services director at Geisinger. "Pre-pandemic, we were highly focused on letting the customer get what they want. Most of our stuff was self-service, [including] salad bars," he explained. "We were heavily promoting bring your own cups from home for coffee. at was part of our sustainability plan. Soup was self-service. [Sites had] self-service sandwich bars and yogurt parfait bars." But that approach started to change in the spring as more information was available about masking and sanitation guidelines. Geisinger didn't want to eliminate salad bars and other popular as- pects of food services, especially since there were still patients and healthcare workers in hospitals in need of them, said Mr. Cerullo. So the health system put screens up behind the salad bars and had food service workers behind the salad bars serving customers. Geisinger also has food service workers serving at condiment and coffee sta- tions, and it removed more than 60 percent of seating in its cafeterias and shied to more grab-and-go items such as salads and sandwiches. Mr. Cerullo said one of the biggest challenges with this now is main- taining staffing. "Geisinger has lost about 60 percent of our retail [food service] vol- ume, [mainly from limited visitors and more employees working from home], but our work has doubled or tripled in some instances," he said. "at's one of the hardest pieces to navigate currently." Loss in catering volume has also been a challenge. e health system would generate about $3 million a year in catering before the pan- demic, but 95 percent of that business has faded. Despite these challenges, Geisinger has been able to leverage the knowledge of its health IT team to assist in food services. Mr. Cerullo said an app lets employees order and pay for their lunch, then pick it up at designated campus locations. "e folks that use it love it," he said. "I think that was a huge success for us because we didn't want mass crowds in cafeterias, so that was kind of our answer to that service. It seemed to work really well." n CEO: Running Temple Health 'most challenging task I've ever had' By Morgan Haefner M ike Young, the CEO of Philadelphia-based Temple Health, said managing the system's cash-strapped safety-net hospitals is "the most challenging task I've ever had" in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer. Mr. Young likened operating the academic health system to playing poker with two cards while everyone else has five. Before becoming Temple Health's CEO in February, he joined Temple University Hospital's turnaround initia- tives as COO in 2018. He had previously led safety-net hospitals in Atlanta and Buffalo, N.Y. Mr. Young's strategy as CEO has been to focus on improv- ing clinical quality, which he said translates to better finan- cial results. He is also focused on integrating the health system's hospitals, cancer center and labs to create better efficiencies. One initiative included combining separate testing labs at the health system's hospitals into one main lab at its flag- ship Temple University Hospital. There, a robotic line com- pletes tests for a fraction of the cost, saving $1.5 million a year. Additionally, Mr. Young told the Inquirer that com- bining some purchasing contracts for Temple and its Fox Chase Cancer Center has saved $4 million. Despite the pandemic, finances are improving at Temple, with the health system reporting operating income of $72 million in 2020, compared to $31.5 million a year prior, ac- cording to the report. Finances were assisted by $92 mil- lion in COVID-19 grants and more income from a Medicaid insurer that Temple co-owns with Thomas Jefferson Univer- sity and Einstein Healthcare Network, both in Philadelphia. Jen Swails, the budget secretary for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, told the Inquirer that the state is taking notice of the changes, saying leadership "stopped what they were do- ing because they always did it and said, let's take a look at everything. Temple decided it was time to take a look at themselves and see where they could make some adjust- ments." n

• Cover