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Food Service Trends In New South Wales Hospitals, 1993-2001, R. Mibey, P. G. Williams

Peter Williams

A survey of the food service departments in 93 hospitals throughout NSW Australia (covering 51% of hospital beds in the state) was conducted using a mailed questionnaire and the results compared with those from similar surveys conducted in 1986 and 1993. Over the past eight years there has been a significant increase in the proportion of hospitals using cook-chill food service production systems, from 18% in 1993 to 42% in 2001 (p<0.001). Hospitals with cook-chill systems had lower staff ratios than those with cook-fresh systems (8.3 vs 6.4 beds/full time equivalent staff; p<0.05), but there was no significant …