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Food trucks deliver dining options for late-shift hospital workers

Published on July 30, 2015

Student Spotlight: Chelsea Van Vark

Chelsea Van Vark stands outside with several of the food trucks she helped coordinate.
Chelsea Van Vark stands outside with several of the food trucks she helped coordinate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hospitals are staffed for patient care 24/7, but not all services – like cafeterias – stay open around the clock. So where can late-night shift hospital workers grab a bite to eat?

Identifying new dining options for this group was one of the tasks assigned to Chelsea Van Vark, a student in the Master of Health Administration program, during her summer internship at JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, Texas.

“The idea of food trucks was brought to me by our VP of Support Services. He asked that I identify, contact, and then manage the scheduling of the trucks,” says Van Vark. “Two food trucks come to the main campus seven days a week from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. This initiative is mainly working to serve third-shift employees who do not have any food options available to them, since the cafeteria closes at night. And because nurses and doctors have short breaks, we decided to implement online and call-ahead ordering to the food trucks to speed things up.”

Another of Van Vark’s projects at JPS Health Network was to work conjointly with a construction team to design a new microbiology lab.

“Our current microbiology lab is designed inefficiently and therefore creates a lot of waste,” Van Vark says. “While the new space is actually a little smaller square footage-wise, by using my knowledge in Lean Six Sigma, we were able to design a more efficient microbiology lab, helping to reduce waste and contain costs.”

Read about more summer internship and other activities in the Department of Health Management and Policy Student Blog.