Nutrition Assistant II

Mercy Hospital is an 82 bed, acute care hospital located in the scenic southwestern Colorado town of Durango. It is the only hospital in Colorado to be rated by Medicare with five stars for overall hospital quality. It is recognized for excellence in orthopedic and spine surgery and for outstanding patient experience and patient safety. Mercy has also received ten consecutive 'A' grades for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group. Our providers use state-of-the-art technology in an environment designed to promote wellbeing and healing of body, mind, and spirit. Among the many specialty services available at Mercy are emergency care (Level III trauma designation), surgical care, cardiac care (including interventional), Orthopedic and Spine Centers of Excellence, a Family Birthing Center, home care, hospice care and more. Durango offers an exceptional quality of life with small town charm, excellent schools, and year-round, world-class outdoor recreation opportunities including snow sports, river sports, hiking, biking, camping and more.

You have a purpose, unique talents and NOW is the time to embrace it, live it and put it to work. We value incredible people with incredible skills – but your commitment to a greater cause is something we value even more. This is the heartbeat of our organization and your time will be spent in a supportive, team environment with resources to help you flourish and leaders who care about your success.

1. Prepares and serves food within guidelines of menu and dietary requirements using required kitchen utensils and equipment. Maintains knowledge of recipe ingredients to respond to food allergy questions or requests.
2. Follows healthcare foodservice industry standards, regulations, guidelines and procedures including monitoring and maintaining food temperatures during cooking, holding, and storage processes. Avoids cross-contamination of foods and adheres to personal hygiene requirements. Maintains proper labeling of food products and ensures storage of food equipment, and machinery per regulations and facility guidelines.
3. Follows organizational standards and guidelines for a high quality patient and customer experience. Ensures proper meal portioning and an aesthetically pleasing presentation. Provides service recovery efforts and escalates to leadership as needed.
4. May be responsible for one or more of the following:

• Following therapeutic diet modifications and guidelines including allergy restrictions for all patient meal trays, nourishment, snacks and supplements
• Printing, providing and following production tool and/or electronic meal tallies/differentials for food preparation
• Explaining basic therapeutic diet orders and menus and responding to questions from patients and family members. Escalating additional patient nutrition questions or needs to appropriate clinical support team members.
• Collecting patient food preferences and ensuring compliance with prescribed diet orders. Distributing food preferences to kitcken for menu planning in a timely manner. Operating electronic diet office software and tools following established procedures and protocols.
• Navigating electronic health records to access patient diet orders and nutritional reports.
• Performing general cleaning of equipment and work areas (e.g., cleaning the tray line, equipment, coolers, office area, and emptying trash cans, etc.)
• Perform other duties as assigned by leader

In addition to bringing your whole self to the workplace each day, qualified candidates will need the following: 

• One year of food service experience required.
• High School Diploma, GED or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• If a Food Handlers Permit is a requirement by your state, county or local health code, it must be obtained within 30 days of hire.*

Physical requirements: Medium Work - (Exert up to 50lbs force occasionally, and/or up to 20lbs frequently, and/or up to 10lbs constantly)