New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) Delhi AIIMS on Tuesday announced a new formal mechanism to gather patients' feedback on the hospital's therapeutic and general diets given in their wards, which will come into operation before December 31.
This initiative is expected to create a continuous loop of inputs from patients to improve aspects such as food quality and hygiene standards, AIIMS Delhi Director Dr M Srinivas said.
A more streamlined mechanism for collecting patients' feedback has been developed by the Dietetics Department by pasting QR codes on each patient's bedside.
This will help patients scan the codes with their mobile phones and communicate their opinions about the diet served in the hospital. Besides, dieticians will visit various wards to talk to the patients to collect first-hand information about their meal experiences.
"Patient feedback is an invaluable tool for improving care, and dietary services are no exception. This initiative will empower our patients directly to influence the quality of food served and help our team make targeted improvements in food hygiene and nutrition. We will keep improving hospital experience continuously for each of our inpatients," Dr Srinivas said.
Dieticians would not only take feedback, but also keep a watch to see if there is a pattern in challenges or improvements that might need to be made. This will ensure that the diet designed would meet the continuously changing needs and tastes of patients, apart from ensuring the safety of food and nutritional balance, he said.
Dr Rima Dada, Professor In-charge, Delhi AIIMS' Media Cell, added, "Good nutrition is an important part of recovery and well-being. By introducing a systematic real-time feedback collection mechanism, we can ensure that our patients are consuming the best nutrition possible to coordinate with their healing process.
"This new feedback system will allow us to adjust and refine the diet we provide according to both the medical and individual patients' preferences."
Not only does this initiative seek to improve the quality of diet that an in-patient receives, but also that an environment of trust and communication is built between health providers and patients, she stated.