Lexington Regional Health Center
Title: Dietary Manager
Effective Date: May 20, 2026
Supervisor: Registered Dietitian

Department: Dietary
FLSA Status: Non-Exempt

Principle duties and responsibilities 

1. Ensures that patient meal service supports the patient’s plan of care and that individual nutritional needs are met in accordance with recognized dietary practices, prescribed diets, and approved menu standards.
2. Plans, organizes, directs, and evaluates the daily operations of the Dietary Department to ensure safe, efficient, and compliant food and nutrition services.
3. Oversees food, supply, and equipment inventory; places orders as needed; limits waste; and manages departmental resources in a fiscally responsible manner.
4. Ensures dietary services staff follow departmental and hospital policies and procedures and comply with applicable laws, regulations, and accrediting standards relevant to food and nutrition services.
5. Collaborates with the Registered Dietitian and appropriate practitioners to support menu planning, therapeutic diet implementation, diet substitutions, nourishments, texture modifications, and patient meal services.
6. Oversees the operational processes for receiving, storing, preparing, holding, labeling, and serving food in a manner that supports safe meal production and service.
7. Maintains and oversees operational records required for daily department functions, including meal counts, production records, inventory records, temperature logs, cleaning logs, and equipment monitoring records.
8. Prepares and enters employees’ schedules into the electronic time and attendance system and maintains appropriate staffing to meet departmental needs.
9. Coordinates staff recruitment support, orientation, schedule training, and day-to-day coaching to promote consistent dietary operations.
10. Monitors compliance with current infection prevention and control practices applicable to dietary services and reinforces required precautions for staff, patients, and visitors within assigned areas.
11. Maintains the physical dietary environment, including kitchen, storage, and serving areas, to support safe operations, cleanliness, equipment access, and compliance with environmental safety expectations.
12. Participates in committees, performance improvement activities, audits, tracers, and survey readiness activities as assigned.
13. Ensures a safe, clean kitchen and dining environment and that equipment is maintained in proper working order.
14. Provides day-to-day work direction, task coordination, and operational support for dietary staff to ensure timely meal production and service.
15. Coordinates dietary services during emergencies or utility disruptions and helps maintain continuity of food and nutrition services.
16. Promotes safe work practices, promptly addresses identified hazards, and reports food safety, sanitation, equipment, or environmental concerns through appropriate channels.
17. Maintains readiness for survey or regulatory review by monitoring that departmental policies, procedures, and required documentation are current, available, and consistently implemented.
18. Ensures patients and visitors follow current infection control guidelines.   
19. Participates in patient care activities that could include blood exposure and risk to bloodborne pathogens. Uses standard precautions and other required safety practices when performing assigned duties that may involve exposure to bloodborne pathogens or other occupational hazards. 
20. Responsible for ensuring the environment meets appropriate governing body standards. 
21. Maintains patient and staff safety through the use of patient safety tools and communication methods, including TeamSTEPPS, Just Culture, and related organizational practices.
22. Regular attendance at the assigned work location is required.
23. Performs all other duties as assigned.

Minimum knowledge, skill, and abilities

1. Requires knowledge of food preparation, food service management, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point principles, sanitation and food safety procedures, allergen awareness, and nutrition and diet therapy for pediatric, adolescent, adult, and geriatric populations, as typically acquired through completion of a high school diploma or equivalent. 
2. Completion of a Dietary Management course approved by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is preferred, or ability to obtain within two and a half (2.5) years of employment.
3. Ability to perform routine office work and supervise, train, and evaluate workers in food preparation and food service operations, as is typically acquired through completion of two years of food service experience, including supervisory responsibilities preferred.
4. Ability to pay close attention to detail, including supervising food trays and temperatures, monitoring diet accuracy, ordering and processing inventory, reviewing records, and entering payroll or meal charge information.
5. Ability to maintain strict confidentiality with regard to protected health information and other sensitive information.
6. Ability to complete reports, records, correspondence, and other departmental documentation at a professional level.
7. Ability to respond appropriately to common inquiries and complaints from patients, employees, visitors, and regulatory agencies.
8. Ability to communicate effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds, including dietary staff, patients, visitors, providers, nurses, and other hospital personnel.
9. Successful completion of required education and training related to standard precautions, transmission-based precautions, food safety, sanitation, and department-specific competencies required for the role.

 Working conditions

1. Works in a well-lit and ventilated area. May be exposed to heat and/or cold temperatures in the kitchen and storage areas for up to 80% of working time.
2. Spends up to 90% of the day standing and moving around to perform work duties. Required to stock shelves, prepare food, distribute food in the dining area and to the hospital floor, and perform cleaning duties such as taking out the trash. Pantry shelves range from 9 inches from floor to 74 inches high. Dietary receives two (2) deliveries per week, including seven (7) -pound cans of food with twenty-four (24) cans per delivery, nine (9)-pound jar of pickles, thirteen (13)-pound tub of jelly, ten (10)-pound twelve (12) pack of soda, and a fifty (50)-pound box of potatoes that are dumped into a plastic tub twenty-two (22) inches high. A twenty-five (25)-pound bag of flour is to be stocked onto shelves once per month and a fifty (50)-pound bag of sugar is stocked once per three (3) months. A thirty-eight (38)-pound case of water is stocked onto shelves one-two (1-2) times per week. In the cooler and freezer, shelves range from nine (9) inches to seventy-five (75) inches in height, stocking a variety of foods such as: eight (8)-pound box of chicken onto the seventy-five (75) inch shelf, a thirty-eight (38)-pound box of biscuits, and a forty-two (42)-pound box of oranges, among other foodstuffs of lighter weights. During food preparation, worker is required to transport pans/pots full of food, such as transporting up to forty (40) pounds of a beef tender, to be transported ten-fifteen (10-15) feet and put into ovens or on stovetops. Required to carry food utensils such as glassware weighing twenty (20) pounds to within the kitchen and dining area. To transport food to hospital patients, a food cart is utilized that requires forty (40) horizontal force pounds for maneuvering cart. This cart is large and is difficult to steer, requiring a two (2) person assist to manage moving cart for distribution of food. Responsible for taking out trash, which is transported via wheeled trash cans to the dumpster; trash bags may weigh up to fifty (50) pounds and are discarded from cans into dumpster.

Management responsibilities

1. Responsible for Dietary Assistant Manager, Dietary Cooks, Dietary Training Coordinator, and Dietary Helpers.

­

Job description statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this job title. They are not intended to be a complete list of all responsibilities, duties and skills required.