A Study of Hospital Foodservice Satisfaction after Covering Hospital Foodservice in the National Health Insurance

Hwang, Rah Il; Kwon, Jin Hee

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the amount of patients' satisfaction with hospital foodservices among those who were benefited from national health insurance during theirhospitalization. A total of 3,094 inpatients from 191 medical institutions were enrolled in this survey. The survey was carried out from July 23 to September 14, 2007 through the face-to-face interview method. All analyses were made using the SPSS software (version 13.0). The mean age of the participants was 53.3 years, 57.0% were women; 34.7% were high-school graduates. Among the respondents, 30.9% stayed in the hospital for 7~14 days long, and 52.0% were hospitalized in multi-patient rooms for six persons. The 87.7% of total population had a general diet, and 9.6% selected the food menu that was notcovered by health insurance. In addition, 38.3% of patients regarded the fee of foodservice as inexpensive. Overall, the satisfaction score with hospital foodservice was 3.63 on a Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (extremely dissatisfied) to 5 (extremely satisfied). However, the limitations were indicated including the lack of providing nutritional information and quality of taste. In conclusion, the quality of hospital foodservice might not deteriorate even after enforcement of national payment of medical insurance. Further efforts are required for the diversification of menus and legislative work for improving quality of food service for a successful hospital foodservice policy.