You are the hospital administrator in a medium-sized, urban, for-profit hospital that caters to middle-income groups. You wonder if patients' satisfaction with the hospital stay will increase significantly if they are given better and more flexible meal options. You decide to conduct a research study to find the answer. The first step is to design the study.

Design a descriptive study to investigate if better meal options will increase patient satisfaction. Include the following elements of design:

1. Develop a research question or purpose of the study
2. Selection of subjects for study (what is the sample)
3. Assignment of subjects to experimental or control groups
4. Study time period
5. Type of data to be gathered
6. Measures of meal options and of patient satisfaction
7. Method of data collection
8. Guidelines for data interpretation