Operational Assessment of Foodservice Information Systems in Hospital Foodservice Operations

ABSTRACT

Foodservice information systems management practices were assessed in hospital foodservice operations. A total of 46 dietetic departments were responded for the study and their practices of foodservice information systems were analyzed. The respondents were questioned about general characteristics of respondents as well as hospital foodservices implementation status of information systems. Statistical data analysis was completed using the SPSS package program for descriptive analysis, factor analysis, t-test and ANOVA test. 43.2% of total respondents gained informations by benchmarking of other hospital foodservice operations, but 7.8% gained through career education. They expected the enhanced efficiency of their tasks through implementing information systems. Based on factor analysis, information systems were divided into 6 management areas such as database management, meal management, nutrition management, purchasing management, production management and foodservice management. The average implementing scores were database management 3.77, meal management 3.26, nutrition management 3.52, purchasing management 3.26, production management 2.73 and foodservice management 3.70 (score 1 indicates very poor and score 5 is very good). Among database management areas, standard recipe database and food item specifications database build-up scores(3.91) were relatively very high, but meal assessment and foodservice management reporting scores(2.43) were very low. The results suggest that it is necessary to build up automated foodservice management reporting system for the improvement of efficiency and productivity of operational tasks.