Diet Order Education Influences Customer Satisfaction in Clinical Foodservice

Tricia Kastelitz
Background
Maintaining high levels of Customer Satisfaction in a
Clinical food service environment has significant
challenges. Often the diets required to manage conditionspatients and the floors with the highest likelihood of having patients able to participate
are often result in in dissatisfaction for patients. Patients in the survey. Patients with more than one diet order were excluded (i.e consistent carb
report this in internal and external customer satisfaction and cardiac) Patients were educated by a dietetic intern on their current diet order and
surveys. Low customer satisfaction scores can result in its nutritional restrictions and potential benefits. At the completion of the education,
lower reimbursement for hospitals for CMS1. However,
there can be significant limitations to increasing scores being the lowest and 5 being the highest. Subjective data was collected based on
while maintain strict compliance with diet order and
without additional financial investments.
A previous study found that educating patients on their
diet order can increase customer satisfaction by up to
15%.2 This also presents an opportunity to not only
provide education to the patient but also creates the
opportunity to have another positive experience with a
member of the food service staff. Staff communication
has been associated with increased customer customer
satisfaction ratings, especially among those on
specialized diets. 3
There are many studies reporting different ways to
increase customer satisfaction scores. The concern
before implementing is cost.This invention
Introduction
This study aimed to examine if a low cost intervention of
educating patients on there diet order could increase
scores at Sentara Obici Hospital Food service
department. This was intended to be a small scale proof
of concept study to determine if further implementation
was recommended.
Methodology Results
Randomly selected based on diet order on two floors of the hospital, telemetry and Data is expressed as a percentage of patients who rated
medical surgical. These floors were selected due to having the highest census of total customer satisfaction as a 5 because this is consistent with
internal and Press Ganey reporting. The departments goal is to
stay above 78%. For the last quarter of 2019 the food service
department achieved 80.2%. Overall, satisfaction for all patients
surveyed was 76% (n=30). Patient on a consistent carb diet
patients were asked to rate their satisfaction with the overall food service 1-5, with 1
patient feedback and questions. Discussion/Conclusion
The overall satisfaction of rating 76% was lower than any scores
received by the through internal or external surveys. Small
sample size likely skewed data. Data by floor sample size ranged
from n=2-6. This data does not confirm previous results. A larger
sample size may result in different conclusions.
Results may also be skewed due the timing of asking for
feedback directly after completing education. THe baseline
surveys are typically conducted after discharge. Patients may
need time to process information before resulting in increased
satisfaction. This could be a possible area for future study.
A larger study including more patients, ideal n>100 over a week
or longer would be recommended to better examine the
effectiveness of this intervention
Diet order Customer References
1. The Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program: CMS.gov
Regular (n=10) 80 https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instru
ments/Value-Based-Programs/HVBP/Hospital-Value-Based-Purchasing
2.Food for Thought: Maximizing the Positive Impact Food Can Have on a
Consistent Carb. (n=10) 70 Patient’s Stay: Press Ganey
http://images.healthcare.pressganey.com/Web/PressGaneyAssociatesInc/%
Renal (n=5) 80 7B55488565-f519-4182-888a-ea6bc68d06e3%7D_Food_for_Thought__Ma
ximizing_the_Positive_Impact_Food_Can_Have_on_a_Patient’s.pdf
Cardiac (n=6) 83 3. Compass One Healthcare Educates Support Staff on Patient Experience
Best Practices: Audrey Doyle
https://www.pressganey.com/docs/default-source/default-document-library/c
Any (n=30) 76 ompass-one-healthcare-educates-support-staff-on-patient-experience-best-p