Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-h8lrw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-20T13:01:37.382Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Patients’ evaluation of hospital foodservice quality in Italy: what do patients really value?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2012

Gabriele Messina*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Health Services Research Laboratory, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy
Roberto Fenucci
Affiliation:
Teaching Hospital Careggi, Largo Brambilla, Florence, Italy
Francesco Vencia
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Health Services Research Laboratory, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy
Fabrizio Niccolini
Affiliation:
Teaching Hospital Careggi, Largo Brambilla, Florence, Italy
Cecilia Quercioli
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Health Services Research Laboratory, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy
Nicola Nante
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Health Services Research Laboratory, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy
*
*Corresponding author: Email gabriele.messina@unisi.it
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective

Patients often do not eat/drink enough during hospitalization. To enable patients to meet their energy and nutritional requirements, food and catering service quality and staff support are therefore important. We assessed patients’ satisfaction with hospital food and investigated aspects influencing it.

Design

We conducted a cross-sectional study collecting patients’ preferences using a slightly modified version of the Acute Care Hospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (ACHFPSQ). Factor analysis was carried out to reduce the number of food-quality and staff-issue variables. Univariate and multivariate ordinal categorical regression models were used to assess the association between food quality, staff issues, patients’ characteristics, hospital recovery aspects and overall foodservice satisfaction (OS).

Setting

A university hospital in Florence, Italy, in the period November–December 2009.

Subjects

Hospital patients aged 18+ years (n 927).

Results

Of the 1288 questionnaires distributed, 927 were returned completely or partially filled in by patients and 603 were considered eligible for analysis. Four factors (explained variance 64·3 %, Cronbach's alpha αC = 0.856), i.e. food quality (FQ; αC = 0·74), meal service quality (MSQ; αC = 0·73), hunger and quantity (HQ; αC = 0·74) and staff/service issues (SI; αC = 0·65), were extracted from seventeen items. Items investigating staff/service issues were the most positively rated while certain items investigating food quality were the least positively rated. After ordinal multiple regression analysis, OS was only significantly associated with the four factors: FQ, MSQ, HQ and SI (OR = 17·2, 6·16, 3·09 and 1·75, respectively, P < 0·001), and gender (OR = 1·53, P = 0·024).

Conclusions

The most positively scored aspects of foodservice concerned staff/service, whereas food quality was considered less positive. The aspects that most influenced patients’ satisfaction were those related to food quality.

Information

Type
Marketing and communication
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012
Figure 0

Table 1 Characteristics (%) of the study population, overall and according to response to all ACHFPSQ items: hospital patients aged 18+ years, Florence, Italy, November–December 2009

Figure 1

Table 2 Percentage distributions of the ACHFPSQ items answered (n 603) and factor scores of the factors obtained by factor analysis: hospital patients aged 18+ years, Florence, Italy, November–December 2009

Figure 2

Table 3 Crude and adjusted analysis of patient characteristics, hospital admission and food catering factors in relation to overall perceived satisfaction (outcome): hospital patients aged 18+ years, Florence, Italy, November–December 2009