Meals often make or break an experience, and for many nursing home residents and hospital patients, this also holds true. Consuming food served at the temperature they were intended to be, makes a tangible difference as to its enjoyment. In healthcare facilities today, food is served in manual carts which keep its contents warm – disregarding the need to keep some desserts or fruits cool. The Happy Cart is designed to address this, and is set to change the way food is ultimately served in various healthcare facilities in Singapore.
Happy Cart is an award-winning, smart, semi-automated cart, manufactured by established Korean healthcare technology company, MYUNGSE CMK, and is brought into Singapore by leading health automation distributor, Omni-Health. The cart’s star ability – to keep food warm and cool simultaneously in different compartments – is the first of its kind in Singapore. The cart ensures that food will be maintained at the proper temperatures, improving hygiene levels and enhancing taste. Residents and patients will get to enjoy a refreshing, cold dessert alongside their piping hot meal, and this goes a long way in improving the overall experience of day-to-day care.
The Happy Cart has also been designed with several smart features to make it user-friendly. The semi-automated driving system is easily operated with the twist and pull of a lever. Rear and front facing cameras facilitate navigation, and safety is never compromised with its in-built proximity sensors. These features make it more convenient for healthcare personnel to handle meal distribution logistics, which can be a fairly exerting affair when done manually. Along with its semi-automatic driving ability, the Happy Cart eliminates the dangers of fully-automated devices, which often run into problems when the programme algorithm jams up, resulting in accidents and causing injuries to those within close proximity.
“Happy Cart has been a mainstay in Korean hospitals and aged-care facilities for many years now, with over 6,000 carts currently in use. The cart has been introduced across the globe in both Eastern and Western markets since 2008, and has now finally arrived in Singapore. We are excited to introduce it to nursing homes and hospitals here to improve the quality of patients’ and residents’ care experience, and ameliorate the meal distribution process. With the demand for nursing home facilities on the rise, Singapore has to continue to upkeep and improve the standard of care through the use of technology. We’re proud to be at the forefront of smart automation technology in healthcare here in Singapore and we are confident that Happy Cart will make a valuable difference to both nurses and residents alike.” says Mr Mahendran, Regional Director of Omni-Health.
Ms Younsoo Kim, Marketing Planning Director of MYUNGSE CMK shares: “Happy Cart is used by all public hospitals in Korea. Our carts are specially tailored for the Asian food culture, with hot and cold functions to keep meals warm and an emphasis on convenience and efficiency. Introducing Happy Cart here in Singapore is in line with Singapore’s move towards creating an automated healthcare system; its functions work well for local hospitals and healthcare facilities, enabling healthcare workers to maximise efficiency. We hope that in time, Happy Cart will be as well-loved in Singapore as it is in Korea.”
Other key features of the cart include:
- Customizable sizes – hospitals and nursing homes can order a cart with the dimensions that they require in terms of number of trays or size.
- In-built battery – allows the cart to maintain set temperate range for 1 to 2 hours
- Door alarm – sounds a warning when doors are accidentally left open, to help ensure that the desired temperature is maintained at all times.
- Passcode lock – ensures that the doors cannot be opened by unauthorised personnel.
- Touchscreen panel – allows the user to quickly input the desired programme on the panel.
