Oral Presentation (50 Mins) 41st Institute of Hospitality in HealthCare National Conference

The Flinders University Aged Care Food Service Satisfaction Toolkit has been developed over the last decade and is inclusive of three validated questionnaires:

1. The resident food service satisfaction questionnaire was developed in collaboration with aged care residents, informed by the literature and an expert panel.
2. The food service satisfaction questionnaire for families of aged care residents was developed in collaboration with families, informed by literature and an expert panel, and demonstrates excellent internal consistency and moderate to almost perfect temporal stability.
3. The aged care workforce food service satisfaction questionnaire was developed in collaboration firstly with food service staff and more recently expanding to testing validity across the broader aged care workforce, inclusive of nursing, care and food service staff.

To support aged care homes in administering the questionnaires and interpreting the results the Toolkit also includes comprehensive user guides and instructional videos, along with an evidence-based library providing practical, research informed strategies to support quality improvement.

To date, the most common method of benchmarking food service satisfaction is to compare the results of the Consumer Experience Survey. Currently, the Department of Health administers the survey to residents during annual accreditation audits wherein residents are asked a single question, “Do you like the food here?”. This single item provides limited guidance to assist aged care organisations in conducting quality improvement activities.

Consequently, the Flinders University Food Enjoyment and Satisfaction Team (FEAST) have developed national benchmarks from the Food Service Satisfaction Toolkit allowing providers to compare results across a range of domains, and to more easily identify targets for quality improvement. These benchmarks have been developed using data collected across Australia and are based on the responses from residents (n=1546), family (n=1100) and staff (n=1078).

The aim of this presentation is to provide an overview of the national benchmarks and to give an insight into how these national benchmarks can be utilised for quality improvement purposes.

The results of the national benchmarks will be presented to provide an overall average level of satisfaction of each of the stakeholder groups. Additionally, the top performing items for each group will be identified, as well as those that consistently present challenges for providers providing insight into areas where further action is needed. The national benchmarks for food service satisfaction of stakeholders are the first available data to support aged care organisations to measure and understand areas for quality improvement and feasible targets to aspire to or to recognise and celebrate achievement.