Dietitians View of Foodservice Sanitary Practices and Demands in Long-Term Care Hospitals

This study aimed to investigate the current state of foodservice management and demands for improvement in long-term care hospitals. The survey was performed in experienced dietitians working at 25 hospitals. General characteristics, status of sanitary management (document management, self-assessment of importance and performance), necessity and ranking of sanitary management items were investigated. Approximately 2.5 dietitians worked in each hospital, but only 7 (28.0%) hospitals employed clinical dietitians. From the questionnaire, the scores of the importance in sanitary management and performance were 4.5 ± 0.7 and 4.3 ± 0.9, respectively, and were significantly different (p = 0.000). Participants also reported "special therapeutic diets management" and "compliance with standards of refrigerating time, food, method management" had the lowest importance and performance, respectively. The result of Importance-Performance Analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between importance and performance (R² = 0.427). However, items such as "performing hand hygiene" and "compliance with standards of refrigerating time, food, method" and etc. had low importance recognition with low performance. All participants reported "preparing sanitary management standards was necessary" is necessary and "development of sanitary management manual" is the most important. These findings suggest that sanitary management is important in food service management of long-term care hospitals, and improving awareness is required. Developing a hospital foodservice hygiene manual would ensure better safety and quality for patient care and public health.