Hospital POS System
Ensuring that patients' nutritional requirements are met and the smooth running of the cafeteria are among the most essential functions of hospitals and care settings. You will need additional specialized POS functions in addition to the standard restaurant and cafe functions.
The last thing you want to do is purchase a system that doesn't meet your needs.
And that's where we come in!
We'll review the top 4 POS systems for hospital cafeterias, highlighting the pros and cons of each, so that you can make a well-informed decision.
Continue reading to learn more.
Price | Top Features | Technical Support | Best For | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
By quotation | Enticing visual displays, self-service kiosk, detailed reporting features | 24/7 support via email, phone call, or enquiry form via website. FAQs | Best all-round hospital POS System | |
By quotation | Kitchen display systems, employee payroll deduction software, patient room service | 24/7 support via email, phone call or enquiry form via website | Best for flexible hospital POS systems | |
By quotation | Nutritional analysis, meal planning, inventory management | 24/7 Emergency support with standard support during office hours, via phone call, email & online support portal | Best for healthcare settings | |
By quotation | Single & multi-site options, streamlined data reporting for cost-efficiency & savings | Customer support portal, email, phone & fax options | Best for streamlining budgets |
The Top 4 Hospital POS Systems
To help you find the perfect POS system for the eatery in your hospital, we'll review 4 of the most popular and widely used software options.
Volanté - Best For All-Round Hospital POS System
Volanté offers an all-in-one hospital POS system that has features that allow you to offer meal plans, declining balance accounts, weighing scales, employee discounts, plus large numbers of menu items.
Their hospital point-of-sale system is specifically designed with healthcare facilities in mind.
The reporting function creates detailed, accurate, up-to-date reports that deliver information from several hospital premises down to individual point-of-sale terminals.
It can also support a number of POS software integration options.
This system allows you to give hospital employees a discount using their employee badge.
The employees simply swipe their badge which is pre-loaded, to make payments for their meals with decline balance accounts or you can offer discounts to individual employees.
Volanté POS systems offer enticing visual displays as well as weigh scales allowing you to give your hospital cafe a particular atmosphere as well as encouraging the sale of slower-moving products to help reduce food waste as well as drive profits.
The attractive self-service kiosks can boost the speed of service as well as minimize order errors and this POS system also has the option of tablets allowing patients' orders to be taken at their bedside as well as mobile and online ordering.
Volanté also offers Covid safety solutions, ideal for hospitals, such as temperature screening kiosks, screens to protect the POS terminal users, and hand sanitizer bottle holders.
Pros
Cons
The ARBA Retail Systems Company offers award-winning hospital POS systems ideal for a hospital cafeteria or a hospital gift shop.
This very flexible POS solution includes various ordering options to speed up the number of transactions you can process at any given time and at multiple locations, including self-service kiosks, online ordering, and patient room service.
These POS features can be paired with the automated ARBA employee payroll deductions for the ideal hospital POS system.
In fact, their employee payroll deduction POS software is very highly rated. Employee discounts can be applied with the employee badge scanning feature.
This secure POS system is cloud-based so it can be accessed out of the office, in fact, at any location with internet access.
Orders can be placed and payments taken with credit or debit cards, and you can access other services such as reporting for real-time data on inventory management or retail operations.
ARBA also has point-of-sale systems suitable for hospital gift shops for an efficient retail experience. The gift shop retail POS software allows you to manage sales and purchases, as well as allow straightforward inventory management, set up loyalty programs, manage payroll deductions, and more.
Pros
Cons
The MealSuite Company specializes in point-of-sale systems for healthcare settings only. It can be used in acute and long-term care settings such as hospitals, as well as senior living facilities.
The team behind this company is made up of dietitians and healthcare experts who have provided well-thought-out and practical hospital POS systems that really focus on meeting patients' needs.
MealSuite POS software is an ideal all-in-one POS solution, allowing customization that aligns with the unique operational requirements of healthcare settings.
The top features of this POS system include nutritional analysis, meal planning, and recipe management software that helps ensure your patients' dietary requirements are met.
There is even a 'Family Portal' whereby you can allow the patients' loved ones a view of the menu items each day and let them track their orders to help them make their meal choices, ideal for long-term healthcare settings.
Inventory and reporting features give you real-time access to all your POS transactions and sales data. MealSuite Connect allows data from the hospital EMR system to be delivered to the POS system so you have real-time allergy and clinical nutrition data easily to hand.
Pros
Cons
With a focus on making healthcare food services as efficient and cost-effective as possible, Computrition offers easy-to-use hospital POS systems.
Their POS system lets your keep track of spending with features that show you the cost for each recipe, the number of lost meals, along with many other things to help you make the best use of the food service budget.
Other features of this hospital point-of-sale system let you streamline costs in various areas of the food service process from workflow to supply chain to the use of technology such as mobile devices to cut down ordering times.
Computrition offers single and multi-site POS options.
With many hospitals merging and many having more than just one cafeteria, the multi-site point-of-sale solution offers a centralized POS system so system users and view and update all the data for the hospital in a single system, thereby streamlining the data to help minimize food waste and maximizing efficiency.
Pros
Cons
FAQs
Now we have taken a peek at some of the top hospital cafeteria POS systems, I guess you probably have some queries. Hopefully, our FAQs will be able to answer those!
What Do I Need To Consider Before Choosing A Hospital POS system?
There are a huge number of factors to consider here, let's take a look at some of the initial ones you should think about.
Do I need Mobile & Online Ordering?
This depends on the size and type of your facility. Enabling patients to make their own food orders can reduce ordering times as their requests are sent directly to the kitchen as well as food waste as they can choose what they would actually like to eat, and order errors.
Even if a patient requires assistance with their food ordering, a staff member can complete their meal order at the bedside on a handheld device.
This is ideal for larger hospitals but if your healthcare setting is very small it may be superfluous to requirements.
Should I Request A Demo?
Most POS companies offer a free demonstration. If you are stuck with your decision a demo could certainly help you pick one.
Regardless, it's always a good idea to have a demo, since it might sound great on paper but using it in real life may be a very different experience.
How Long Does It Take To Get Up & Running?
This does depend on the size of your hospital, the amount of hardware that needs installation, and the number of staff that needs to complete training.
It can take as little as a few weeks for smaller hospitals.
Your POS provider can advise you on this matter, as well as assist with staff training.
Bottom Line - Which of These is Right for Me?
The answer to this question depends heavily on the individual needs of your healthcare setting. All hospital cafeteria POS systems come with basic functions, but the one that you ultimately choose should either include all of the features that you need, or be able to integrate seamlessly with the third-party apps that you require.
The correct POS system can streamline your food service operation and eliminate staff confusion. Taking the time to make the best investment possible will improve efficiency and save money in the long run.
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Tim Postlethwaite
Contributing Author