JOB SPECIFICATION:

EDUCATION

Two-year degree in a nutrition-related field preferred. High school diploma or equivalent required.

EXPERIENCE

Previous diet tech, diet assistant or diet clerk experience in an acute care hospital preferred. Knowledge of modified and therapeutic diets required.

PREREQUISITE SKILLS

• Ability to interact effectively with patients, staff and visitors in a professional manner.
• Ability to provide patient education regarding individual diet prescriptions at a level consistent with the patient’s ability to learn.
• Demonstrates exceptional customer service and strives to improve patient experiences with the Nutrition Services Department.
• Knowledge of modified and therapeutic diet principles; applies critical thinking skills to meet patient nutrition needs within the parameters of individual diet prescriptions.
• Demonstrates expert understanding of the production capabilities within the food service system.
• Ability to follow through and work independently with little supervision; problem solving skills are essential.
• Demonstrates effective written and oral communication in English. Proficient ability to communicate in Spanish is preferred.
• Ability to interview patients in person, including patients on infection control precautions, while using the appropriate level of Personal Protective Equipment.
• Basic computer skills.
• Demonstrated ability and willingness to accept changes as needs arise and desire to learn new technology.
• Ability to respond in a cooperative manner to crisis/emergency workload.

LICENSE/REGISTRATION/CERTIFICATION:

Servsafe certification required within 90 days of hire.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Essential (not modifiable):

• Provides basic patient education regarding individual therapeutic diet orders.
• Assists patients with menu selections using excellent customer service skills in a time-efficient manner. 
• Offers patients alternative menu selections, using knowledge of modified and therapeutic diets and department production capabilities.
• Prepares production information for cooks, salad and cold food prep staff for patient meal service and between-meal nourishments.
• Utilizes the diet office software to provide tallies to production staff when needed and diet reports for diet office staff to ensure tray ticket and diet order accuracy.
• Answers the telephone promptly in a courteous and professional manner.
• Plans work time effectively to meet established deadlines for production.
• Supervises tray line, monitors each tray for accuracy and loads trays onto food carts. Leads tray line as a quiet, focused environment. Prepares late trays and arranges for delivery.
• Responsible for cash handling between the café and department safe when needed.
• Assists in maintaining temperature logs for refrigerators/freezers and monitoring the Checkpoint Temperature Control system.
• Assists in problem-solving technical issues within the diet office computer systems.
• Participates in performance improvement and patient safety initiatives. 
• Contributes to the education of staff, interns and volunteers as needed.
• Consults with nursing staff, interdisciplinary care team, patients and/or patient’s family regarding appropriate nutrition care plan; facilitates implementation of care plan and food preferences.
• Visits newly admitted patients to explain diet orders, obtain food preferences, allergies and intolerances; communicates information to the clinical dietitians as needed.
• Communicates requests/needs for nutrition consults to the clinical dietitians.
• Prints and manages patient tray tickets prior to meal service; creates appropriate tray tickets for patients not participating in menu selection.
• Processes diet orders; maintains and updates patient database within CBORD, assuring information is consistent with hospital computer system.
• Communicates frequently with clinical dietitians and production staff regarding information and activities related to patient nutrition care; problem solves patient care issues using appropriate methods of communication.
• Checks email during each shift to remain engaged in hospital and department operations.
• Provides exceptional customer service in all patient interactions.
• Identifies appropriate solutions for patient issues related to meal service; provides service recovery as warranted.
• Adheres to MGH Service Standards and Behaviors.

SECONDARY (modifiable)

• All other duties as assigned.

At MarinHealth, our top priority is the well-being of our employees, patients, and community. As such, we require all employees to receive necessary immunizations, including the measles, mumps, varicella, and seasonal flu vaccinations as a condition of employment and annually thereafter. Additionally, the continued recommendation to obtain a COVID booster vaccination status. We understand that some individuals may require medical or religious exemptions from these requirements, but we remain committed to prioritizing the health and safety of all. Thank you for helping us in our efforts to maintain a healthy and safe environment for all.

The compensation for this role listed on this posting is in compliance with applicable law.The selected candidate’s compensation will be determined based on the individual’s skills, experience, internal/market equity factors, and qualifications.This posted minimum and maximum range represents the minimum and maximum of what we reasonably expect to compensate for the position.Furthermore, all compensation decisions are ultimately determined in accordance with our compensation philosophy.Compensation for positions covered by collective bargaining agreements are governed by the agreements in the aforementioned document.