HOW HOSPITALITY CAN ENHANCE THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE.

Toward Hospitable Healthcare

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:

1) the new “information everywhere” environment that has resulted in more patient-directed selection of healthcare service providers

2) the move toward transparent pricing of healthcare services to enable more informed consumer choice…and greater competition

3) the fact that most healthcare service providers must now engage in direct-to-consumer marketing to attract new patients.

The authors address these and related issues through an examination of 24 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: PAEER (pronounced “pay-er”). Deconstructed, the model includes five components: Prepare, Anticipate, Engage, Evaluate and Reward. The authors argue that adoption of this model will enhance the patient experience while improving the financial “well-being” of healthcare service providers who implement it.