A powerful expenditure control system for the largest not-for-profit hospital on the West Coast of the USA.
The Challenge
- To take control of expenditure on doctors' subsidized
meals.
- To replace stored value cards and the inconvenience of manual
reload at a reload station.
- To prevent abuse of doctors' lunch subsidies
- Management wanted to be able to 'shout' lunch for non
subsidized staff or volunteers.
- The funds on the current cards were not secure, so anyone who
found a card could help themselves to free food.
- Reducing cash handling and associated costs in the dining
room.
The Solution
Supervisor Net, 13 Monitor MB20 terminals
The Result
Monitor's card system caps the funds available for each doctor
to spend on meals in the dining areas.
The hospital now knows its exposure in meal subsidies and the
doctors' departments can now account for the cost of the
meal. Previously the hospital never knew how much money was
out there to be spent on food at any one time.
Instead of having to return to reload stations to load credit on
the cards, funds are automatically loaded "real-time" to the card
via the Supervisor Net network.
Around 500 doctors use a card which accesses an account with a
monthly subsidy for meals. They swipe this through a card reader in
a VIP line, and the food service company uses the data to bill the
hospital for the food, and take a set amount from the doctors'
card.
Supervisor Net charges each doctor's card for the actual cost of
the meal, or it can charge the card a predetermined amount, such as
$7 for a set meal or a tray of food. The total subsidy is capped,
with any unspent amount accumulating.
Monitor's interface between Micros System's cash registers and
its Supervisor Net expense management system gives the food service
company detailed accounting of each transaction and simple
billing.
The hospital sells the Monitor cards to other staff and members
of the public in the dining room, removing the need for cash.
Management can buy lunch for nurses for instance, by giving gift
cards.
As an approved partner of HID, we have successfully integrated the hospital's staff ID to the Monitor system and thereby creating a one card solution.
Brian Kennedy, SmartVend