Satisfaction of suspected covid-19 patients regarding meal services at a tertiary care hospital of north india

Introduction: Meal services plays a significant role in speedy recovery and increases patient satisfaction. Objective: Present study was done to assess the satisfaction of suspected COVID-19 patients regarding meal services at a tertiary care hospital of north India. Methodology: This cross-sectional study in retrospective design was done to understand the factors affecting the satisfaction of suspected COVID-19 patients with respect to meal services. The data was collected for patients admitted from January 2020-June 2020 with the help of a questionnaire with graded responses i.e Yes, No or Maybe/Not applicable, gathered from participants after discharge from hospital through ‘google forms’. Results: Out of 160 participants, 159 filled up the questionnaire through ‘google form’. Majority of the participants were <30 Years old 46.5%, had university or higher education 52.8%. The study showed 96.9% patients were satisfied and 3.1% were not satisfied with the quality of the meal services provided during the hospital stay. There was no significant association observed between taste of meals and consumption of whole meal with the quality of the meal served (p = 0.875, p = 0.855 respectively). Although significant association was observed between temperature of meal, time of meal distribution, quantity of water bottles provided, and quality of meal served (p = 0.000, p = <0.001, p = 0.000). Conclusion: Present study connotes that such types of assessments can help identify the gaps which can be worked on for achieving maximal satisfaction of patients with respect to quality of meal services in the hospital. Key words: COVID-19 patients; Meal services; Patient Satisfaction; Tertiary care hospital