Better Meal Options to improve Patient Satisfaction

Introduction

According to studies done, meals served in hospitals play a major role on the satisfaction of patients in their hospital stay. Additionally, hospital nutrition and food services influence patient's well-being and recovery process. It is the hospital's foodservice team responsible in ensuring that the food served to patients meets their nutritional needs.

According to Nor (as cited in MCKinnon, 2007, p.1), patients suppose that they lack control over virtually everything during their stay in hospital. Choosing their food is one of the vital areas where they wish to have control. Studies also show that, the period a patients spends in a hospital determines their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the meals offered; the longer the stay, the greater the dissatisfaction.

Furthermore, patients who spend longer periods in hospitals are likely to suffer from severe conditions; which makes them lose appetite, thus, eating less food. Recently, there is a rise in competition within the health care industry. As a result, hospitals are improving food services in order to improve their patients' satisfaction.

Purpose of Study

The reason for carrying out this study is to determine whether better meals option will help in improving patient satisfaction.

Subjects for study

Thorough awareness of the diverse hospital foodservice satisfaction dimensions is required in order to understand the expectations of patients, as well as, promote patients' nutritional and health status. These diverse dimensions are the subjects for study.

Quality of food: it is important to understand the quality of foods served to patients. Food quality may refer to flavor, taste of meal, variety, vegetable and meat texture and the perception of opting for a healthy meal. Implementations on menu changes to improve the quality of food, will address a variety of influences. Interventions will be customized on the perceptions and needs of the number of patients present.

In order to better understand the needs of improving the quality of food, inpatients expected to stay longer due to their conditions will be questioned using questionnaires on how they feel regarding the meals served for a period of one week. In a week's time a patient ought to have eaten all foods served in the hospital, thus, he or she is in a position to tell the quality offered (Theurer, 2011).
Patient Surveys: patients are vital data source regarding the function of service. To help in improving quality of food offered, a patients' satisfaction survey will be carried out; where patients will be questioned about food service. This will be done through quality-control programs for about two weeks on both inpatients and outpatients.

Carrying out meal Rounds: meal rounds are an evaluation tool for intake of foods by inpatients and foodservices satisfaction. This will be done by a staff member in the foodservice team by visiting inpatients during meal periods and question them on satisfaction, as well as, food intake. In addition, the staff member observes the set-up of the tray and the food appearance, and the necessities for feeding improvements. This should be a continuous activity to help in improving quality over time.

Impacts of introducing snack room: a hospital's intake gets affected by factors such as, taste alterations, early satiety, fatigue, gastrointestinal intolerance, poor appetite and disease status. According to dieticians, taking snacks or regular intake of small amounts of foods can help malnourished patients in meeting their nutritional needs. This encourages optimal nutrition intake, which help in fast recovery and also reduces medical cost (Mahoney, 2009). To measure this, patients will be introduced to snack services for a period of one month, where their recovery progress will get checked regularly.

Considering the most cost effective changes; this is a subject on study that depends on the survey done. In the quest to improve meals offered in the hospital to help improve patient satisfaction, it is also important to consider the most cost effective solutions. It is important that the cost likely to be incurred during the process of improving meals options is reasonable, and friendly to the hospitals finances. This will get determined by the financial status of the hospital.

Monitoring the scores of Foodservice Satisfaction

Having curried out the study, the scores will get monitored for evaluations. Evaluations will involve analyzing the patient's satisfactions and dissatisfactions and determine the changes that should take place, where and when and what amount of money will be required to complete the task. In order to monitor the scores, regular similar studies will be carried out. The regular studies will determine whether the patients' satisfaction is improving or not. If there is no improvement more research will be done n order to determine the root for the problem and what could be done to change the situation.

Design elements not readily obvious in the study for mammographic screening

The design elements in this study and were absent in the study done on attitudes towards mammographic screening include, investigating on the attitudes of patients towards the quality of food offered, patients surveys, where patients are questioned on the quality of food and carrying out of meal rounds to determine perception and need for change.

References

Mahoney, S. (2009). Patient satisfaction and energy intakes are enhanced by point of service meal provision [PDF Document]. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1280&context=hbspapers

Nor, M.Z. (2010). Hospital foodservice directors identify the important aspects when implementing room service in hospital foodservices [PDF Document]. Retrieved from http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2669&context=etd

Theurer, A.V. (2011). Improving patient satisfaction in a Hospital Foodservice System Using Low-Cost Interventions: Determining Whether a Room Service System is the Next Step [PDF Document]. Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1029&context=gradreports.