Barriers and Challenges of an Outsource Hospital Foodservice Operation: A Narrative Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Hospital foodservice is one of the key performance metrics that should be constantly monitored to maintain and improve the quality of hospital services. However, hospital foodservice must overcome obstacles and constraints that can impact the quality of services supplied. This study explored the barriers and challenges foodservice employees encountered during food production and serving meals to patients. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with thirteen foodservice employees (N = 13) at a government hospital in Selangor, Malaysia, that outsourced its foodservice operations. The interviewees were chosen based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using narrative, and thematic analysis. Results: The narrative findings reported foodservice employees were able to define their job in the foodservice department and describe their responsibilities in delivering sufficient quality of service to patients. The findings showed foodservice staff confronts barriers and challenges related to the type of foodservice operation, budget allocation, menu served, employee issues, meal preparation, and equipment. Employees also proposed that the government should regularly revise the foodservice contract specifications, budget allocation, and upgrade the equipment used during meal preparation and delivery to patients for future improvement. Conclusion: Future studies should be conducted in different hospital settings, including government, semi-government and private hospitals or foodservice operation systems such as in-house and outsourced operations or centralized and decentralized plating systems to explore other barriers and challenges that may affect the overall foodservice performance. Therefore, intervention studies can be proposed to improve their operation in the future.

Sodium Counting System in Mass Catering for Therapeutic Diet Preparation

“…The study conducted by Chik et al [1] has highlighted that plate waste generation, a type of food waste, is significantly influenced by temperature and taste. These findings align with another study by Osman et al [2], which revealed patient dissatisfaction with the taste of hospital food. According to the staff, it is because salt usage can be little to none and sometimes not used, depending on the prescribed diet.…”

Hospital Food Service Quality Improvement Questionnaire (Hfsqiq): Development, Translation and Validation of a Questionnaire

“…The interviews also assisted to build and improve the answer options. Details on the thematic analysis of the interview session for the process of item development can be gleaned from a previous study (22). Next, the questionnaire underwent a peer-reviewed process to identify any overlapping and duplication questionnaire.…”

Nutritional Status and Factors Affecting Food Intake among Hospitalized Patients in Hospital Ampang

“…Hospital food service is of the utmost importance in food provision to more than 75% of hospital patients (Andersson et al 2013). Food consumption during hospitalization is determined by the quality of food and beverages which might have an impact on patients' recovery (Norshariza et al 2019;Osman et al 2022). Additionally, it is the responsibility of a hospital's food and nutrition service to provide adequate diets to patients and the meal provided must supply sufficient nutrients that can maintain or restore nutritional status during acute or chronic disease state (Gomes et al 2020).…”

“…An increment of malnutrition prevalence has been recorded among geriatric patients at 61.7% using Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) as the nutritional assessment tool (Abd Aziz et al 2018). Negative consequences associated with malnutrition include high mortality rates, increased hospital stays, and lower discharge rates (Osman et al 2022). The nutritional status of patients is assessed using Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS 2002) by recommendations made by European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) for hospitalized patients (Kondrup et al 2003).…”