U.S. News & World Report’s ranks Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in the top 10 best pediatric medical centers in the nation. Providing care mostly to children under 18, CHLA treats those with chronic illnesses, injuries, long-term illnesses, diabetes, eating disorders and epilepsy. The foodservice department works with the healthcare staff to make sure they are providing the best care from the cafeteria to the operating room.
“We have a lot of prestigious doctors who are very specialized, so they’re able to work with different groups of patients in a specific way,” said Nicole Williams, Food Operations Manager at CHLA. “There are really dedicated people here.”
Each day, the kitchen makes 485 to 500 trays of food, including guest trays and offers breakfast, lunch and dinner in their HBO Café.
“We are open 23 hours between breakfast all the way through to overnight and we do see about 3,000 transactions per day and about $20,000 in sales per day,” said Williams.
When you’re serving a high volume of people in a healthcare setting, utilizing products that support efficiency and food safety is paramount. In order to be survey, audit and health code ready, CHLA relies on Cambro products to keep them prepared.
“We've really benefited from switching out our Cambro shelving because it's been safer, it's been easier to clean and our team has been able to better utilize our space when we're organizing all of our product that we have in house.”
Designed to be impervious to rust and corrosion, Camshelving is a necessity for healthcare facilities. Unlike metal shelving, Camshelving is easy to clean and is constructed with molded-in antimicrobial Camguard®, which discourages the growth of microbes. Previously, CHLA had stationary metal shelving that had grooves that made it difficult to clean.
“If something spilled, it was kind of a catastrophe,” said Williams. “You had to really pull everything off and try to clean them; they also rusted pretty easily if you had them for a long period of time.”
After switching to Camshelving, Williams saw a noticeable difference.
“The biggest improvement I would say is the cleaning aspect. We’re able to wipe down the shelves and fully take them off if needed if they are a little bit more soiled,” said Williams.
In addition to the cleanability aspect, CHLA’s previous shelving was difficult to adjust after it was installed, leading to gaps and inefficient uses of space. Camshelving is designed to use your space as efficiently as possible and is easy to adjust when needed.
"We can just put the new cans up top and it automatically slides back behind the older ones that need to be used first and it fits really well against our wall."
Prior to [installing the Ultimate #10 Can Rack, CHLA had a standard stationary rack where they had to slide cans in and out. If they wanted to maintain FIFO (first in first out), they had to pull all of the old cans forward and put the new cans in the back.
“Now, with the rotating can shelving, we can just put the new cans up top and it automatically slides back behind the older ones that need to be used first and it fits really well against our wall. The spacing is better and it just makes organizing a lot faster and easier,” said Williams.
"Our staff is able to slide the shelving back and forth so that we can get the product on the back wall as well as different sides of the storeroom. Then [we can] also properly utilize the space in the middle that wasn't really giving us a lot of room to walk.”
Without the proper design, dry storage rooms can be drastically underutilized. Previously, CHLA had stationary shelving against the wall and additional units configured into makeshift aisles, which was hard to get in to get product out.
Camshelving High Density Storage System can increase storage by up to 50%. Grooved casters glide seamlessly across a track secured between two stationary units.
Start your Camshelving transformation today! Click here to contact your local Cambro sales rep.
