Cook, Full-Time Lunch and Dinner Shift

DEPARTMENT: SWM DIETARY

SHIFT: Varied

SUMMARY:

The Cook is responsible for providing excellence customer service to all patients and guests, maintaining a kitchen environment to the standards of state and federal regulatory authorities, and providing quality food and presentation to all guests and patients. They must be able to open/close the kitchen properly. They oversee and demonstrate the preparation of hot/cold food for patients, residents, retail, catering, and special events to ensure recipe and portion compliance to meet nutritional needs. They monitor compliance with food temperature standards and HACCP requirements. They ensure proper and efficient handling of all inventories, including proper storage, rotation, covering, labeling, and dating, to ensure waste reduction and budget optimization.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Is able to demonstrate proper hand washing and understand when hand washing is necessary and required.(i.e. Between handling raw meat and other food items).
• Practices FIFO - "First In, First Out" method.
• Properly records all food temperatures using thermocouple and uses time as temperature control when necessary.
• Properly labels, wraps, and dates all items within the department.
• Maintains cleanliness throughout the kitchen and production areas during entire shift and ensures that all equipment is clean and in working order.
• Prevents eating surfaces of dishware from coming in contact with staff clothing. Handles cups/glasses on the outside of the container; and knives, forks, and spoons by the handles.
• Demonstrate use of Green/Clean, and Red/Sanitizer buckets, cleaning up and leaving no visible signs of food items remaining on prep areas or in cabinet surfaces.
• Demonstrate the proper way to set-up 3 compartment sink by knowing temperatures of each sink (110°F), ratio of sanitizer strength (200ppm), and 60-second contact time for Quat Sanitize.
• Properly opens the kitchen as well as being prepared for the day or evening shift.
• Maintains all food items in fresh and attractive manner.
• Understand and follow prescribed diet orders, menu spreadsheets, and corresponding recipes, as well as portion sizes and serving utensils for all diets on menu.
• Is able to demonstrate by showing the different levels of therapeutic diets.
• Understands menu substitutions and use of nutritionally equivalent foods.
• Monitors portion sizes of meal components to ensure that meals are nutritionally adequate.
• Provides required substitutions or modifications in meals for patients whose special needs restrict their diets.
• Maintains a safe work environment.
• Use safety standards for using equipment and maintaining facilities, to ensure the safety of facility floors, aisles and walkways by elimination factors that can cause safety hazards.
• Determines amounts to be prepared and stocked via production sheets, patient counts, and other provided data.
• Keeps abreast of pertinent federal, and state regulations and laws and Tift Regional Health System, Inc. ("TRHS") policies as they presently exist and as they change or are modified.
• Understands and adheres to: TRHS' compliance standards as they appear in TRHS's Corporate Compliance Policy, Code of Conduct and Conflict of Interest Policy; and HIPAA and TRHS policies regarding privacy and security of protected health information.
• Demonstrates the ability to perform tasks that meet the age-specific requirements of the persons, patients, vendors, and staff that the employee is charged to interact with as required by the position.
• Offers suggestions on ways to improve operations of department and reduce costs.
• Attends all mandatory education programs.
• Improves self-knowledge through voluntarily attending continuing education/certification classes.
• Maintains required competency levels as identified in written exams, skills checklists, skills labs, annual safety and health requirements as well as service excellence education hours requirements.
• Cross-trains in order to better assist co-workers and to provide maximum efficiency in the department.
• Volunteers/participates on hospital committees, functions, and department projects.
• Manages resources effectively.
• Reports equipment in need of repair in order to extend life of equipment and removes malfunctioning equipment out of service with timely reporting to the appropriate personnel.
• Makes good use of time so as to not create needless overtime.

EDUCATION:

OTHER INFORMATION: