Background: Optimal management of food services in hospitals plays an important role in their performance, accelerating the patients’ recovery and increasing the level of patient satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to design a model for food service management in Iranian hospitals.
Methots: This descriptive correlational study was carried out using structural equation modeling. Simple random sampling was performed and the study participants were selected among  hospital managers, nutrition experts, and environmental health experts in a hospital management conference in Tehran in September 2018. The measurement tool was a researcher-made questionnaire with confirmed construct validity and corroborated reliability through Cronbach's alpha. For data analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed via SPSS ₂₁ and AMOS ₂₂ software.
Results: Based on the obtained model, 5 main factors affecting the management of food service sector were identified, including: health and safety factors, satisfaction factors, food waste factors, monitoring and control factors, and mechanism factors. Among these, health and mechanism factors with coefficients of 0.874 and 0.612 had the highest and the lowest effect in the management of food services in Iranian hospitals, respectively.
Conclusion: According to the obtained model, various factors are effective in food management that should be considered in hospital planning. Based on this, the food health and safety dimensions are of particular importance.