ASSESSMENT OF GOOD PRACTICES IN HOSPITAL FOOD SERVICE BY COMPARING EVALUATION TOOLS.

Introduction: since food service in hospitals complements medical treatment, it should be produced in proper hygienic and sanitary conditions. It is a well-known fact that food-transmitted illnesses affect with greater severity hospitalized and immunosuppressed patients.

Aims: good practices in hospital food service are evaluated by comparing assessment instruments.

Methods: good practices were evaluated by a verification list following Resolution of Collegiate Directory n. 216 of the Brazilian Agency for Sanitary Vigilance. Interpretation of listed items followed parameters of RCD 216 and the Brazilian Association of Collective Meals Enterprises (BACME). Fisher's exact test was applied to detect whether there were statistically significant differences. Analysis of data grouping was undertaken with Unweighted Pair-group using Arithmetic Averages, coupled to a correlation study between dissimilarity matrixes to verify disagreement between the two methods.

Results And Discussion: Good Practice was classified with mean total rates above 75% by the two methods. There were statistically significant differences between services and food evaluated by BACME instrument. Hospital Food Services have proved to show conditions of acceptable good practices.

Conclusion: the comparison of interpretation tools based on RCD n. 216 and BACME provided similar results for the two classifications.