Importance-performance Analysis on Foodservice Management Items of the Dieticians at Long-term Care Hospitals

Background/Objectives: This study examines the importance and performance degree of the foodservice management items targeting at the dieticians at long-term care hospitals in Korea and aims to understand the current conditions. Methods/Statistical Analysis: This study targeted at the heads of the dietary department or chief dieticians at long-term care hospitals in Korea. We sent the questionnaires to the 500 long-term care hospitals by mail, which were picked through stratified sampling method, and used the 157 returned questionnaires for our analysis. We set the average value of importance and performance degree through the parting line of X-axis and Y-axis, and conducted the Importance-performance analysis. Findings: The research result shows that the importance degree and performance degree showed difference with significance (P<0.05, P<0.01, P<0.001) in 25 items, and importance degree was higher than performance degree for 27 items. Among the 28 items, the performance degree on “Use of heat reserving food delivery carts” marked the lowest, followed by “Checking the temperature at the center of heated food”. Among all the items, ten of them (35.7%) showed the score lower than the average in the importance and performance degree, which turned out to be the main control target among the items through importance-performance analysis. These showed that there should be methods and systems to keep the food’s temperature desirable until the distribution of food is finished. Also, education and promotion are needed, on the issues such as the importance of maintaining the temperature to prevent food poisoning, and sanitary principles and practical methods of washing and sterilization. Application/Improvements: The research result is also important to give education of foodservice staff at long-term care hospitals and provide data on foodservice management plans for elderly people.