Foodservice in hospital: development of a theoretical model for patient experience and satisfaction using one hospital in the UK National Health Service as a case study*

Abstract

Hospital food service does not operate in isolation but requires the co-operation and integration of several disciplines to provide the ultimate patient experience. The objective of this research was to explore the antecedents to patient satisfaction and experience, including the service element. Accordingly, focus groups were conducted with doctors (n=4), nurses (n=5), ward hostesses (n=3), and patients together with their visitors (n=10) while open ended interviews were conducted with the food service manager, facilities manager, chief dietitian, orthopaedic ward dietitian and chief pharmacist.Themes centred on 'patients', 'food service' and 'meal times' and results show that food quality, particularly temperature and texture, are important factors impinging on patient satisfaction, and the trolley system of delivery is an acceptable style of service. Service predisposition demonstrates little relevance to patient satisfaction towards the overall meal enjoyment. A theoretical model has been developed that identifies hospital food service in a cyclic relationship with the community Primary Health Care team.

Food service research: An integrated approach

“…Consequently, typical qualitative methodologies such as surveys, interviews and focus groups coupled with qualitative thematic analysis are applicable. Focus groups with stakeholders elicited a range of themes such as patient care, patient satisfaction, meal time and foodservice staff (Hartwell et al, 2006). A deeper probing resulted in identification of particular issues such as food service system, menu variety, feeding assistance, excessive packaging and portion size (Walton et al, 2006).…”

Softer perspectives on enhancing the patient experience using IS/IT

“…Overall, patient experience depends on a range of complex parameters and factors (Clarke, 2001;Hartwell et al, 2006). These perspective includes for example an understanding of the role of racial and ethnic differences in patients' experiences (Hicks et al, 2005), an understanding of the role of proper foodservice and nutritional care (Kondrup, 2004), and the level of patient care interaction (Hartwell et al, 2006). Other CE parameters, which also need to be taken into consideration include the technical aspects of rehabilitation (Small et al, 2007), the determination of clinical standards for patient experience, and the role of communication in patient-carer relationships (McCabe, 2004;McCormack and McCance, 2006;McGilton et al, 2006).…”

MILP approaches to sustainable production and distribution of meal elements

“…eh (1) environmental impact of producing one product unit with enthalpy level h e (2) environmental impact for transporting one This paper presents a modelling approach for the sustainable production and distribution of professionally prepared meals. We first discuss the sustainability issues involved in the system, after which the relevant planning decisions are identified and organised in a decision hierarchy.…”

“…These parameters can then be used to reformulate the presented model, focusing on the minimization of environmental impact instead of costs: (14) LYjt~M ·Zt 'tIte T jeJ (9) subject to constraints (2) - (13) In the above formulation, the objective function (1) aims to minimize the total cost, consisting of production costs, packaging costs and transportation costs. Constraints (2) and (3) enforce the production capacity constraints and make sure that there is no production below the minimum possible enthalpy level. Constraints (4) to (7) mean that all the customers' demand should be satisfied, there are no overlapping delivery structures and exactly one package type is selected for the product produced on one day for one customer.…”

“…The distribution management of such prepared food is becoming a new challenge for supply chain managers. This also has background in the fact that the culinary quality of foodservice meals is a much debated issue throughout Europe [1][2][3] and the consumption of prepared meals is growing and will continue to grow in the foreseeable future, due to trends in demography and life-style (more elderly people, more one-person households in the future, and more out-of-home dining) [4]. This paper studies the supply chain for professionally prepared meals, in which a new innovative concept for producing and distributing the main components is applied.…”