ARE THE BENEFITS OF ROOM SERVICE SEEN IN ADULT HOSPITALS RELEVANT TO PAEDIATRIC HOSPITALS?
Nicole Steele, Ebony Sutton, Stephen Morris
Contact details: Nicole Steele, 0401080541, nicole.steele@health.wa.gov.au, 62 Harris Street, Bicton
Research indicates that room service in adult hospitals significantly improves patient and organisational outcomes. However, there’s limited evidence on whether these benefits extend to paediatric hospitals.
Perth Children’s Hospital is gearing up to introduce a room service model in 2025, marking it as Australia’s first public tertiary paediatric hospital to do so. This initiative stems from consumer feedback, prioritising personalised, patient-centred care, with a focus on improving food intake to mitigate malnutrition risk and reducing food waste for environmental benefits.
This study aims to compare the benefits of room service observed in adult hospitals with those expected at Perth Children’s Hospital, a 298-bed tertiary paediatric facility. It will assess patient nutritional intake, plate waste, kitchen production waste, meal costs and patient satisfaction. The assessment approach used in the study will mirror the methodology employed in research conducted at adult hospitals to facilitate data comparison across different hospital locations.
Nutritional intake and plate waste will be gauged by tracking the percentage of meals consumed by patients over a five day period, comparing the current cook fresh traditional food service model with the planned cook fresh room service model. This will be recorded using a five-point visual scale (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%). The plate waste data will be used to calculate nutritional intake using the electronic food management system (CBORD). Using patient demographic data of age, sex, weight, height and clinical status, the nutritional requirements will be calculated and compared with nutritional intake.
Production waste will be quantified over a 5 day period before and after room service implementation, with all cooked waste weighed and recorded. Meal costs will be analysed based on hospital financial reports for the 12 months preceding and following the room service rollout.
Patient satisfaction with meals will be surveyed through the validated Acute Care Hospital in Food Service Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire, conducted for both the current food service model and the future room service.
The findings will undergo analysis and comparison with research findings from adult hospitals, as well as the limited research available from comparable paediatric facilities, where notable enhancements were observed in nutritional intake, reduction in plate and production waste, meal costs and patient satisfaction. Similar benefits are anticipated at the paediatric tertiary hospital in Western Australia.