Operational performance of health care foodservice systems

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to overcome the problems surrounding the operational performance of health care foodservice systems and provide a comprehensive comparison and analysis of the performance of all the different types of foodservice systems. The paper seeks to show that research addressing the operational performance of health care foodservice systems is subjective and outdated. Design/methodology/approach - Discussion with foodservice managers, coupled with a review of the literature, was undertaken to determine the variables of operational performance in the different types of foodservice systems. Statistical analysis was then used to determine the areas of difference between the systems based on a sample of 90 hospital foodservice operations. Findings - Results showed significant differences between the systems with regard to critical variables such as labor, skill level of employees and size of the production area. However, no significant differences were found for other variables such as food and energy costs. Practical implications - Hospital foodservice managers are under increased pressure to reduce the operational costs of their departments while maintaining high productivity. Findings from this study should allow foodservice directors to distinguish between the operational performance of the different foodservice systems and as result introduce the system that best suits their individual hospital. Originality/value - The determination of critical variables and comparison of foodservice systems using all the operational variables address significant gaps in the literature. These findings should also reduce the subjectivity in the systems' comparison, and contribute to better decisions in the selection of a particular system