Lengthy-term care suppliers face mounting challenges in relation to managing meals and vitamin packages – attributed to rising prices, staffing shortages and evolving resident preferences. These pressures stretch assets, making it troublesome to steadiness high quality and affordability in eating companies, whereas additionally guaranteeing high-quality look after weak residents.
Working with a reputable group buying group (GPO) may also help long-term care suppliers navigate these challenges. From price financial savings to operational experience, GPOs empower suppliers to ship distinctive eating experiences whereas preserving budgets intact.
Combating rising prices
Inflation and provide chain disruptions have made managing meals prices more and more troublesome, elevating affordability as a prime concern for long-term care communities. GPOs alleviate this pressure by leveraging collective buying energy to safe aggressive pricing on meals, gear and provides. They assist communities guarantee each greenback spent aligns with operational and dietary objectives.
Past securing aggressive pricing, GPOs creating worth for long-term care communities like AdvantageTrust, HealthTrust’s non-acute GPO, for instance, present instruments to assist communities keep high quality and keep inside price range. AdvantageTrust members additionally profit from real-time rebate transparency, permitting them to trace financial savings on the level of order.
Addressing staffing shortages
In line with the AHCA’s 2024 State of the Sector Report, staffing shortages stay a vital problem. In lots of communities, a single particular person manages meals packages alongside different duties, resulting in unmet resident wants and restricted assets for menu planning and specialised coaching.
GPOs may also help bridge these gaps via tailor-made operational help. For instance, AdvantageTrust gives strong coaching packages, equipping culinary employees with expertise like proper-hand hygiene, knife dealing with and recipe improvement. For communities going through employees shortages, AdvantageTrust additionally assists with outsourcing non permanent staffing for positions corresponding to cooks, meals servers, dietitians, and kitchen manufacturing employees and upkeep employees when wanted.
By optimizing meals administration and addressing workforce challenges, GPOs assist suppliers construct well-staffed, high-quality meals and vitamin packages that improve resident satisfaction and drive price range effectivity.
Enhancing meals program effectivity and personalization
As resident expectations develop, communities should tailor choices with evolving preferences and well being wants. As a strategic accomplice, AdvantageTrust gives modern options to fulfill these expectations, corresponding to AI-driven menu optimization instruments and unattended micro markets. These applied sciences scale back employees workloads, improve operational effectivity, and provides residents better flexibility to take pleasure in meals on their very own schedule.
Communities may also tailor menu cycles to mirror regional tastes, dietary necessities and seasonal shifts, making a extra personalised setting the place residents really feel heard, empowered and cozy.
Maximizing the partnership
To totally profit from a GPO partnership, long-term care suppliers ought to collaborate carefully with their GPO to deal with meals administration challenges, benefiting from entry to helpful assets that improve meals companies whereas decreasing administrative burden on their groups.
By partnering with a GPO like AdvantageTrust, communities achieve entry to one of many nation’s largest meals service distribution networks—spanning 80 distribution facilities and over 110,000 merchandise—guaranteeing affordability, high quality and effectivity in meals & vitamin packages. To be taught extra, go to www.advantagetrustpg.com.
AdvantageTrust is a bunch buying group specializing in serving non-acute suppliers and nonprofit organizations with the identical entry to contracts HealthTrust has negotiated for its hospital members. AdvantageTrust medical provide and pharmaceutical distribution companions concentrate on serving non-acute market segments, providing low models of measure, dedicated schedules for supply, and data introduced in a manner that’s most related to services outdoors a hospital setting.
