Nutrition Services Specialist

St. Elizabeth Healthcare•Lawrenceburg, IN

About The Position

St. Elizabeth Healthcare is hiring a Nutrition Services Specialist for its Dearborn Nutrition Services Team. This role performs a variety of Nutrition Services functions—including customer service, nutrition assistance, call center work, cooking, and serving—with daily duties subject to change based on staffing needs. The position also assists with projects as needed. The specialist is expected to demonstrate respect, dignity, kindness, and empathy in interactions with patients, families, visitors, and employees, regardless of cultural background. Depending on assignment, the position delivers meals and nourishments to patients; assists patients and families with meal ordering and diet information; coordinates with nursing and Nutrition staff; assembles, checks, and dispatches meal trays; prepares and serves food; operates computerized meal-ordering and register systems; maintains food supplies and equipment; and performs cleaning and sanitation tasks. The work must follow established service, dietary, food safety, quality, and sanitation standards.

Requirements

High school diploma or GED required.
Three months of experience, including customer service responsibilities.
Ability to read with comprehension and follow written and verbal instructions.

Responsibilities

Deliver and serve patient meals and between-meal nourishments professionally and efficiently, resolve tray and order problems, and follow service standards.
Orient patients and families to the meal-ordering system and diet restrictions; assist with orders and arrange interpreter or other special assistance when needed.
Assess patients’ ability to use the meal-order system and follow up with nursing or Nutrition staff when they cannot participate.
Coordinate communication among patients, families, nursing units, Nutrition Services, and other departments; report nutrient intake and communicate patient concerns and needs.
Monitor room-service quality, document required performance-improvement data, replenish nursing-unit bulk food supplies, and retrieve completed meals.
Assemble patient trays, set up and restock the tray line, check meal accuracy, quality, portions, and diet compliance, and support timely meal-cart dispatch.
Communicate tray needs, urgent orders, and replacement-item requests; follow food safety practices, including temperature, handling, and dating requirements.
Prepare, assemble, and plate food according to recipes, diet specifications, quality standards, and meal tickets; load and deliver meal carts and retrieve trays.
Process utensils and dishware through the dish machine, restock clean dishware, and perform janitorial tasks such as cleaning equipment and surfaces, sweeping, mopping, and disposing of trash.
Check and document equipment temperatures and chemical concentrations and follow sanitation and safety guidelines to prevent foodborne illness.
Use software systems to place electronic meal orders, change diets, update patient information, maintain the CBord menu system, process reports, and handle diet requisitions.
Assist patients and families through the telephone call center, enter meal orders, coordinate with cooks and tray-line staff, and manage workflow during peak call volumes.
Serve cafeteria customers, prepare food including short orders, maintain supplies, assist with catering, and complete assigned cleaning tasks.
Record cafeteria sales on a computerized register, handle cash and change accurately, stock supplies, and respond positively to customer complaints.
Prepare and cook food for customer self-service and to order, guide servers on plating, stock and rotate workstations, prepare ingredients, and follow standardized recipes.
Perform other duties as assigned.