This review aims to identify hospital food service strategies to improve food consumption among hospitalized patients. A systematic search that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria was manually conducted through Web of Science and Scopus by an author, and the ambiguities were clarified by two senior authors. The quality assessment was separately conducted by two authors, and the ambiguities were clarified with all the involved authors. Qualitative synthesis was used to analyze and summarized the findings. A total of 2432 articles were identified by searching the databases, and 36 studies were included. The majority of the studies applied menu modifications and meal composition interventions (n = 12, 33.3%), or included the implementation of the new food service system (n = 8, 22.2%), protected mealtimes, mealtime assistance and environmental intervention (n = 7, 19.4%), and attractive meal presentation (n = 3, 8.3%). Previous studies that used multidisciplinary approaches reported a significant improvement in food intake, nutritional status, patient satisfaction and quality of life (n = 6, 16.7%). In conclusion, it is suggested that healthcare institutions consider applying one or more of the listed intervention strategies to enhance their foodservice operation in the future.

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Introduction: Hospital foodservice is one of the key performance metrics that should be constantly monitored to maintain and improve the quality of hospital services. However, hospital foodservice must overcome obstacles and constraints that can impact the quality of services supplied. This study explored the barriers and challenges foodservice employees encountered during food production and serving meals to patients. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with thirteen foodservice employees (N = 13) at a government hospital in Selangor, Malaysia, that outsourced its foodservice operations. The interviewees were chosen based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and analyzed using narrative, and thematic analysis. Results: The narrative findings reported foodservice employees were able to define their job in the foodservice department and describe their responsibilities in delivering sufficient quality of service to patients. The findings showed foodservice staff confronts barriers and challenges related to the type of foodservice operation, budget allocation, menu served, employee issues, meal preparation, and equipment. Employees also proposed that the government should regularly revise the foodservice contract specifications, budget allocation, and upgrade the equipment used during meal preparation and delivery to patients for future improvement. Conclusion: Future studies should be conducted in different hospital settings, including government, semi-government and private hospitals or foodservice operation systems such as in-house and outsourced operations or centralized and decentralized plating systems to explore other barriers and challenges that may affect the overall foodservice performance. Therefore, intervention studies can be proposed to improve their operation in the future.

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