Patients’ Satisfaction Regarding Dietary Service at Tertiary Hospitals

Aim: Hospital diet is an integral part of the management of in-ward patients. Patient satisfaction is a key criterion by which the quality of dietary services can be evaluated. This study was conducted to assess the patients’ satisfaction regarding dietary service at tertiary hospitals.

Methodology: The present cross-sectional study had been carried out among 247 dietary service receivers to assess the patients’ satisfaction regarding dietary service at tertiary hospitals. The study was conducted in Shaheed Suhrawardi Medical Collage Hospital and Dhaka Dental College Hospital, Bangladesh from January to December, 2022. Convenience sampling technique was adopted and a pre-tested structured questionnaire based on Acute Care Hospital Foodservice Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire (ACHFPSQ) was used for measuring patients’ satisfaction with dietary services.

Results: The mean age of the service receivers was 39.24±13.09 years where more than half of the respondents (59%) were male and 65% of the respondents are from rural area. All of the respondents took hospital diet 3 times daily. Among the respondents 97.6% stated that they never had any option to choose their meal and 47.4% of them sometimes felt hungry between two meals. 87% of the respondents considered that the dietary staff always had good behavior. Among the respondent 41.30% had good satisfaction, 30.40% had moderate satisfaction and 22.70% had very good satisfaction regarding hospital dietary service.

Conclusion: The study concluded that almost half of respondents had good satisfaction with the overall dietary service whereas about one third of the respondents rated dietary services as average. Hospitals should strengthen the ongoing dietary service by providing a menu with variety of food daily and improve the taste of supplied food.