A Case Study on Quality Improvement of the Food Services for Patients: Focused on back-up orders

Lee, Seung Lim; Chang, Yu Kyung

Abstract

The purpose of this research which, surveyed target hospitals, was to evaluate job operations by surveying the influences of Quality Improvement (QI) activities in various divisions related to a decrease in their back-up orders. Statistical data analyses were completed using the SPSS 11.0 program. The results can be summarized as follows : Before QI there were 147 cases of back-up orders ; after QI there were 83 cases, decrease of 64 cases. This was 44%, less than the projected goal of 50%. For each item, there was a decrease of 40 nurse cases, 9 patients and patron cases, 9 test.surgery. deliverly cases and 5 doctor cases after QI. The registering of midnight meals was not shown after QI, due to the Order Communication System (OCS) settlement. After performing QI, the average manual operation per month was reduced from 840 minutes to 498 minutes, of which the difference was 342 minutes, and the average of 342 minutes per month could be used for the peculiar operation of each division. This QI activity provided a good opportunity for establishing cooperation among divisions in providing meals to patients through interactions among divisions. It was recognized that these interactions were effective only when medical services were achieved through organized cooperation among divisions. Among the 7 items included on the patient satisfaction questionnaire, "satisfaction with offered menus" (p < 0.01) showed significantly higher scores before QI. However "satisfaction with meal times" (p < 0.01) showed significantly lower scores before QI.