Nutritional Service Experienced During Hospital Stay: Comparison between Centralized Operating System and Contracted Operating System

The provision of good healthcare including nutritional services is a challenge for the management of hospitals and health centers. Thus, this study was carried out to measure and compare the performance of the Department of Food and Nutrition in two hospitals with two different operating systems: a centralized operating system and a contracted operating system. A cross-sectional comparative design was used to investigate in-ward food services from the patient’s perspective. Ninety patients participated from Hospital A, a hospital with a centralized operating system, and 125 patients participated from Hospital B, a hospital with a contracted operating system. The result showed that the centralized operating system had inherent advantages over the other system in all dimensions. Specifically, the dimensions of "Staff/Service issues" and "Physical Environment " were identified as the areas that differed between the two hospitals and need to be further developed in the contracted operating system.