Sodexo Middle East, the leader in services that improve the Quality of Life, is incorporating AI systems to supplement patient, visitor and medical staff experiences in healthcare institutions in the region.

 

Committed to meeting the diverse market needs within the region’s healthcare industry by offering a varied range of innovative services to hospitals and healthcare institutions, Sodexo has augmented patient comfort and safety, clinical support, and facilitated efficient and smooth operations within healthcare sites in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait. 

 

In the Middle East, the Covid-19 pandemic led to a growth phase for contactless food services in 2020 with Saudi Arabia ranking first in the region, reporting a 170% growth rate in the food delivery segment, followed by UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar. 

 

The healthcare industry has mirrored this demand for contactless solutions as part of its food services. Sodexo Middle East has leveraged its state-of-the-art food services offering to over 4,300 daily inpatient meals, more than 4,500 daily meals for medical staff and 1,800 daily meals for visitors; managing an area of 60,000 sq ft 

 

In early 2021, to meet this growing demand, Sodexo Middle East launched its digital food ordering technology, One Klick – a convenient and easy-to-use food ordering mobile application which enables medical staff and visitors to order healthy meals simply through the click of a button; reducing the need for shared touch points and further eliminating the risk of infection by limiting physical contact. 

 

One Klick’s user-friendly interface provides staff and visitors with a one-stop platform for all their in-house dining needs offering nutritional information on every meal, discounts and promotions on meals, live status updates and convenient and safe payment options. 

 

The self-service ordering tool enables medical staff to indulge in healthy and exciting food menus, improving employee satisfaction levels in hospitals. Hospital visitors can enjoy savory meal plans from patient rooms, attending to the needs of their dear ones. 

 

In order to further enhance patient experiences, the quality of life service provider has launched its state-of-the-art in-patient dining solution – ‘Touch 2 Order’ (T2O). The integrated in-patient ordering system amplifies patient satisfactory levels by interfacing patients’ electronic medical history and dietary restrictions directly to the kitchen; combining users’ eating preferences to create nutritious meal plans. 

 

T2O provides patients with holistic nutritional information breakdowns, highlighting the number of calories consumed in each meal, as well as, automated synchronisation of patient preferences in online and offline modes. 

 

The user-friendly system increases patient awareness by empowering users to manage their tastes and preferences in a healthy manner, while offering visually appealing menus enabling patients to order meals from their hospital wards and rooms. 

 

Touch 2 Order further improves operating efficiencies for healthcare institutions by eliminating arduous paperwork and reducing cost of managing food services in hospitals. 

 

Rachid Noujeim, CEO of Sodexo Middle East says: “Using self-optimising systems, we have been able to further enhance in-patient and visitor experiences across our operational sites. The recent pilot launch of One Klick and Touch to Order across education and healthcare sites in the UAE has been very successful with overall user experience being very positive and we look forward to expanding our operations to further sites across the Middle East and the UAE in the coming months. At Sodexo, we aim to improve and adapt our services to the changing market requirements by investing in new technologies such as AI, and believe the Middle East market is ready to embrace the use of AI to supplement its healthcare needs”

 

Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics has also proven to be an efficient and sustainable solution to enhance the logistics and medical requirements within the industry. In 2017, the UAE government launched the ‘UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence,’ the first-of-its-kind strategy, aimed at implementing the application of AI across various fields including the healthcare industry.

 

The Quality of Life services provider is an avid practitioner in the use of AI in its services and in Q3 2021 launched its state-of-the-art AI-driven food waste prevention programme, WasteWatch powered by Leanpath (WWXLP) across 41 sites in the healthcare, corporate, energy and resources and defense sectors in the region. Since September 2021, WWxLP has showcased its food waste prevention technology across 20 operation sites in Qatar, saving 2,441kgs in food waste equivalent to saving 4,484 meals.-- TradeArabia News Service