Care catering in hospitals - automated into the future

University Hospital Frankfurt

The kitchen catacombs of House 35 are a hive of activity. Employees in hairnets and white coats push trolleys from room to room, while others sort frozen goods into the freezing cold warehouse. In the kitchen, food simmers in large cauldrons.

Abteilung 3.5 Gastronomie und Veranstaltungsservice des Universitätsklinikums Frankfurt

The "Department 3.5 Catering and Event Services" at Frankfurt University Hospital feeds up to 2,300 catering participants every day. Around 1,200 of these are patients, while between 700 and 1,000 portions are served to employees. In addition, external locations such as day care centres and psychiatric wards are also supplied, and event catering is also part of the portfolio.

"We provide our guests with a wholesome diet in order to favourably influence their health and well-being," emphasises Marina Becker, head of the department. A responsible task that only works with a perfectly coordinated team. Mrs Becker has a total of 98 full-time employees at her disposal. She receives valuable management support from Markus Conze (Head of Patient Catering) and Uljana Hoyer (Head of Staff and Guest Catering).

Markus Conze (Leitung der Patientenverpflegung) und Marina Becker (Abteilungsleiterin)

The menu is varied: it offers a daily choice between full meals, vegetarian and light meals. The meals are prepared by four chefs using the "cook & chill" method with a lead time of three days, while five dieticians take care of the organisation. Marina Becker knows: "Without automated processes, this workload would not be possible."

In order to relieve the existing staff and meet the requirements for effective and maximally hygienic food distribution despite increased costs and the industry-wide shortage of employees, the "Catering and Event Service" department therefore relies on solutions from the B.PRO Group at two key points, installed by the subsidiary BRIMATO Catering Automation Technology. B.PRO is focussing on automation on the food distribution belt, BRIMATO specialises in the automation of processes in sculleries.

"Automation makes sense when, among other things, the same tasks are always carried out, heavy physical labour puts a strain on employees or there is little staff available," explains Simon Böckenholt. As Sales Manager at BRIMATO, he knows that the arguments in favour of automation can be many and varied. "Depending on the circumstances on site, we can counter the shortage of employees, relieve the burden on existing staff, ensure a better working atmosphere, optimise hygiene, work more profitably and stabilise processes."

Some of these arguments have also convinced the University Hospital in Frankfurt. In order to automate sub-processes in the area of care provision, it is currently using two solutions from the B.PRO Group: the ASV-1 system for meal automation and the BVA-800 cutlery packaging system.

The ASV-1 food automation system consists of several modules. These modules are put together individually during the planning phase - in Frankfurt, the planning office io-consultants GmbH & Co. KG was involved in this. Assembly took place within two weeks in March 2020. The food portioning conveyor is used at the university hospital to transport system trays on round belts. The automated components: the handling of trays, patient cards and plates or stew bowls.

Porcelain and trays are provided by dispenser trolleys and automatically fed into the process. The machine sucks in the components using air pressure and positions plates and bowls on the trays, which are placed automatically beforehand. The patient cards fed to the trays from a magazine contain a digital marking. This is read by the automation system so that only the required components (plate/bowl/nothing) are then placed on them. The trays loaded in this way are transported on the conveyor belt to the relevant employee, who portions the food according to the requirements on the patient cards. At the end of the conveyor belt, the food is placed in food transport trolleys and - in the case of patient care - regenerated on the ward.

"This machine is primarily useful for relieving the physical strain on our staff," explains Head of Department Marina Becker. In fact, the trays with keep-warm function weigh 1.52 kilos (a new food distribution system with reduced tray weight is currently being implemented). Without the product, up to ten of these trays would have to be lifted per minute. In addition, other repetitive tasks such as handling patient cards are no longer necessary. Thanks to the machine, one full-time employee can be utilised more productively elsewhere.

Automatisierung Tablett mit Tellern verlassen eine Maschine zur Bestückung von Tabletts

Next door, the BVA-800 cutlery packaging machine is working reliably. An employee manually feeds the cleaned cutlery into the machine. A napkin is automatically added to each set of cutlery in Frankfurt. The cutlery is packed in paper bags, which are sealed tightly all the way round to ensure hygiene right up to the person being served. The throughput is up to 800 sets of cutlery per hour. "The BVA-800 does a very valuable job for us by saving several steps and therefore time," emphasises Marina Becker. "It also contributes to better hygiene, which is of course an extremely important aspect in care catering."

Due to these advantages, Becker is also considering supplementing the cutlery handling process with an automatic cutlery sorting system. In addition to the CSS-3500 and CSS-8500 sorting systems, the CSS-Compact is also available. The machine sorts up to four different types of cutlery per hour, with a total of 3,500 pieces. It relies on smart camera recognition using artificial intelligence.

Marina Becker is aware that food distribution in professional kitchens is facing fundamental change. "In view of the increasing shortage of staff, we will increasingly have to look for intelligent solutions. Automation and digitization are the topics of the future."