Toward Hospitable Healthcare: The PAEER Model
Customer satisfaction data confirm what many adults believe intuitively: their service experiences with most healthcare providers (hospitals, clinics, physicians) fall well short of their service experiences with most hospitality providers (hotels, resorts, restaurants). Yet, because the services delivered in both industries are intangible one wonders whether the adoption of principles known to enhance guest satisfaction in hospitality could elevate the level of patient satisfaction in healthcare. The exigent need for healthcare service providers to explore this idea is underscored by three converging trends:
The authors address these and related issues through an examination of 22 service “touchpoints” common to both hospitality and healthcare experiences in an original survey of 1,200 US adults (our service “GAP” survey). We measured their sentiment toward the quality of service provided by hospitals, clinics, physicians’ offices, hotels/resorts and restaurants. The result? The introduction of a model healthcare service providers may use to implement select principles of hospitality to improve the patient experience: PAEER (pronounced “pay-er”). We explain the relevance of each component of the model and provide specific examples of how healthcare service providers may introduce each in practice throughout the book.
