Quality assurance in hospital catering

We tested the satisfaction of patients with their diets at two times in two university hospitals by a standardized questionnaire. Parameters were tast e, quality, freshness, variety, temperature, size of portions, and presenta tion of the food. Psychological aspects of possible relevance to the rankin g, loss of appetite and mechanical eating problems were assessed as well. C omputerized analysis of the data allowed to recognize dependencies among th e parameters. The tests performed in winter revealed a lower satisfaction of patients in the surgical clinic, which is further away from the kitchen. Statistical an alysis has shown a significant correlation between the food temperature and patients' overall assessment. This was confirmed by repeated tests in summ er. Our results demonstrate the importance of these parameters fo the assessmen t of food quality Improvement of these provides an effective and cost-savin g chance to increase patient satisfaction, and at the same time improve sev eral other parameters as well.