Investigation of Food Services Quality in Hospitals and Strategies for Its Improvement, a Review Study

Nowadays, paying attention to food services quality in hospital is one of the important challenges in provided health services and is one of the main concerns of hospital managers. The present study aimed to survey food services quality in hospitals and present strategies to for its improvement.
This systematic review was conducted in 2013 by searching databases, such as PubMed, science direct, Sid, Iran Medex, and Google scholar. The articles which were related to quality of foods and patient's satisfaction were entered into the study. Besides, the data were related to a 6-month period from 2012 to 2013. Overall, 29 out of the 2042 articles were analyzed.
Paying attention to food services quality is one of the main factors in improvement of patient's health and an inseparable part of the treatment process. Therefore, hospital managers should pay special attention to this issue. In order to improve the food quality and increase patient satisfaction, managers can plan for educating the personnel regarding food preparation and distribution, making up appropriate kitchens, appropriate food temperature, selection of foods by patients, provision of healthy and sufficient equipment, regular examination of the personnel of the nutrition ward, and creation of bulk trolley service and room service systems.