Kamarudin, Nur Zakiah
(2015)
Patients' satisfaction with hospital food provision at government hospitals in Malacca.
Project Report.
Pusat Pengajian Sains Kesihatan, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
(Submitted)
Abstract
Patients' hospital food consumption is often compromised, mainly because it is not
reflective of their preferences and eating habits. This cross-sectional study was
conducted to understand patients' satisfaction with various aspects of food provision
in Malacca General, Jasin and Alor Gajah Hospitals. The Wesley Hospital
Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (WHFPSQ) was adapted and used to
collect the data throughout January and February 2015. Simple random sampling
method was used to recruit 111 patients, aged 11-72 years, who received normal diet
and had been admitted for ~1 day. Most of the patients were aged 30-39 years old
(n=28, 25%), were male patients (n=69, 62%) and were hospitalised for 2-7 days
(n=80, 72%).Majority were satisfied with hospital food (n=78 70.3%). In general,
patients felt that not enough food choices were available and they were not able to
choose healthy meals. Nevertheless, they felt staff who delivered their food were
friendly, helpful and looked presentable. Food quality aspects (taste, flavour, method
of vegetable cooked and expectation of quality of food), staff/service factors (staff
behaviour, appearance and helpfulness) and portion size were significantly
associated with overall satisfaction with hospital food (p<0.01). Physical
environment, including odour (r=0.239) and noises (r=0.230) were also significantly
associated with overall satisfaction with hospital food (p<0.05). Length of stay
showed negative association (r=-0.338, p<0.01) with overall satisfaction, indicating
that the longer they stay, the less satisfied they were with hospital food. However, no
association was found between food choices, healthy meals, food texture and
temperature with overall satisfaction. This study revealed that although overall
satisfaction with hospital food was satisfactory, various factors including food and
service elements affected patients' satisfaction. Satisfaction often reflects patients'
actual food consumption. Therefore, findings of this study are useful in improvising
provision of food, by taking into account the aspects that affected their satisfaction.
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