Factors Affecting Satisfaction Level with the Food Services in a Military Hospital

TLDR: The results showed that patient-specific demographic characteristics were insignificant in explaining satisfaction level with food services, but the variables of taste and appearance of the food were statistically significant and important determinants of patient satisfaction with the foods served at the hospital.

Abstract: Objective: To determine the factors affecting general satisfaction level of patients with the food services in a military hospital in Turkey. Study design: The study was carried out in a military hospital providing tertiary health care services with the capacity of 1000 hospital bed. A questionnaire was used as data collection tool on measuring satisfaction of the patients with the food services. Results: The results showed that of 374 patients 51.3% evaluated food service quality adequate, 32.4% said that the food quality was inadequate, and 16.3% stated that they were uncertain. A logistic regression model was estimated in determining the most important and statistically significant factors affecting patient satisfaction with hospital foods and food services. The results showed that patient-specific demographic characteristics were insignificant in explaining satisfaction level with food services, but the variables of taste (OR = 9.853, p = 0.000) and appearance (OR = 2.687, p = 0.014) of the food were statistically significant and important determinants of patient satisfaction with the foods served at the hospital. Conclusions: The results of this study would be helpful in making decision on increasing the level of satisfaction of patients with the food services for hospital managers and the food (nutrition) departments. On the other hand, the results can also be used in benchmarking the hospital's food services quality with other hospitals, and in monitoring improvements in food services quality in the future.