Validation and Reliability of a Questionnaire for Evaluating the Performance of Hospital Food Service Operations

Abstract

Introduction: This study aimed to identify standardized indicators for food service operations in Malaysian hospitals and to validate these indicators comprehensively. Methods: A new questionnaire was distributed to 160 government, private, and teaching hospital food service administrators. Construct validity and reliability were assessed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), discriminant and convergent validity, composite reliability (CR), and internal consistency reliability. Results: The final Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy (MSA) of EFA was 0.869. A total of 69.9% of the variation was explained by the factors “Food Production and Distribution Management,” “Patient or Customer Service Management,” and “Operational Management”. Items correlation with factors grouping established internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.891). The AVEs above 0.5 showed convergent validity and composite reliability above 0.80, indicating the internal consistency of scale items. There were significant correlations between “Operational Management” and “Patient or Customer Service Management” (r = 0.550, p < 0.01), “Food Production and Distribution Management” (r = 0.204, p < 0.01), and “Operational Management” and
“Food Production and Distribution Management” (r = 0.156, p < 0.05). The significant difference in subscale means for “Patient or Customer Service Management” (in-house: 2.96, outsourced: 2.55, p < 0.05) and “Food Production and Distribution Management” (in-house: 2.83, outsourced: 3.25, p < 0.05) between food service operations indicate discriminant validity. Conclusion: The findings of this study revealed that this questionnaire is validated and reliable, and further research should be undertaken to identify specific indicators that can be used to evaluate hospital food service quality.