Korean Journal of Community Nutrition

Original Articles

[English]
Effects of Nutrition Service Improvement Activities for Reducing Plate Waste of the Diabetic Mellitus Diet in a General Hospital: Cheong Min Sohn, Hae Sun Yeom; Korean J Community Nutr 2008;13(5):674-681. Published online October 31, 2008

Abstract PDF: Hospital malnutrition could be caused by not completing the food served in the hospital. This has been a big problem since it delays the recovery of the patient and extends the length of hospital stay. The purpose of the study was to reduce the plate waste for the DM diet by performing several nutrition service improvement activities. The study was performed in a general hospital with 900 beds. A questionnaire survey was taken by 39 DM patients to obtain their aspect of the hospital foodservice systems and the quality of the meals at the beginning of the study. The amounts of foods served in the hospital kitchen and returned were measured by weights. After the improvement activities, the measurement of the plate waste was performed again for comparison. The average percentage of plate waste for the DM diet was 23.2%. The survey showed no difference by sex, age or duration of admission in plate waste. However, this food wastage percentage showed differences between the patients having a chance to get information about the diet therapy (12.21%) and not having one(26.06%) (p < 0.05). Using a five-point Likert-type scale, the quality of food by its taste was 2.49 (1: very poor, 5: excellent), the temperature score was 3.56 (1: very poor, 5: excellent), and the amount of food served score was 2.95 (1: very poor, 5: excellent), and the preference score was 3.13 (1: very dislike, 5: very like). Nutritional care improving activities were performed by adjusting seasonings, developing new menus, and standardizing cooking methods in order to increase the satisfaction of meal quality. The dietitian's inpatients care protocol was adjusted to expand the nutritional counseling chance for the DM patients. After the improvement activities, the average plate waste was reduced to 14.6%, and the satisfaction of food taste and preference increased to 3.21 (p < 0.001), and 3.36 (p < 0.05) correspondingly. The result shows that, for therapeutic diet patients, food intake could be increased by improving the food service satisfaction by controlling the meal quality and clinical nutritional service activities.

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[English]
A Case Study on Quality Improvement of the Food Services for Patients: Focused on Satisfaction Offered Menu and Differentiated Service: Seung Lim Lee, Yu Kyung Chang; Korean J Community Nutr 2004;9(2):225-232. Published online April 30, 2004

Abstract PDF: The objective of this study is to investigate how patients satisfaction are affected by satisfaction with the patient menu and differentiated service resulting from QI activities and to evaluate the efficiency of QI activities. In order to improve satisfaction with menus through QI activities, this study strengthened meal round, examined the quantity of food waste produced by patients, diversified one-dish menus and used seasonal food as much as possible to reflect patients' tastes to the maximum. With regard to cooking, additionally, it strengthened sampling and standardized recipes to maintain the constancy of taste and cooking/seasoning. From July 2003, dining time was changed from 08 : 00 to 07 : 30 for breakfast and from 17 : 30 to 18 : 00 for dinner. Statistical data analyses were completed using the SPSS 11.0 program. The results can be summarized as follows: The goal of QI was to improve food service by raising the score of "Satisfaction with Offered Menus" from 3.49 before QI to 3.55 after QI and differentiating nutrition service at the VIP ward. The score of "Satisfaction with offered menus" after QI was 3.56, and services related to the VIP ward were 7 dishes per meal, meal round once per day and the use of a napkin for a spoon in setting the table. In addition a variety of dishes were used in order to heighten the visual effect. Among the 10 items included on the patient satisfaction questionnaire, 8 items showed higher scores before QI. "Taste of meals" (p <0.05), "Satisfaction with offered menus" (p <0.05), "Kindness of meal serving assistants" (p <0.05) and "Cleanliness of clothes & features" (p <0.05) of VIP ward were significantly higher than those of a general ward.

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[English]
A Case Study on Quality Improvement of the Food Services for Patients: Focused on back-up orders: Seung Lim Lee, Yu Kyung Chang; Korean J Community Nutr 2003;8(5):755-762. Published online October 31, 2003

Abstract PDF: 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.

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