Food Service Provision Status and Patients’ Satisfaction at Selected Government Hospitals in Ethiopia

Abstract

The daily provision of hospital patients’ nutritional food dietary intake is still a major problem at the majority of government hospitals found in Ethiopia. this leads to increased recovery time, morbidity, and mortality of lives. This cross-sectional study was designed to investigate the current status and functioning of the health facility concerning daily dietary food provision for patients under health care treatments for various health reasons. The main objective of this assessment was to generate evidence-based information on the current status and functioning of the health facility concerning daily dietary food provision for patients under health treatments for various health problems. A cross-sectional design, with a mixed-method approach (both qualitative and quantitative methods), was conducted from February to May 2019. The qualitative data were collected from key informants and quantitative data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The mean age of the participants was 37.35 (±16.59) and overall, 74.75% of the targeted populations were not satisfied with the food prepared at hospitals and 13.00% of them had no idea about the food prepared for the patients. Insufficient budget allocation, unskilled manpower, and less attention to hospital nutritional foods were common problems among the 13 governmental hospitals. The nutritional food services offered to hospital patients should be improved.