WEEKLY ASSIGNMENT-02

ASSIGNMENT ON HOW IS
HOSPITALITY BRIDGING GAPS IN
HEALTHCARE?

SUBMITTED TO: Dr. SEEP MAHAJAN

SUBMITTED BY: MEHAK KHANNA
ROLL NO: 2018SMB1011
MHA, MYAS-GNDU,
DEPARTMENT OF SPORTS SCIENES AND MEDICINE, GNDU,
AMRITSAR.
HOW IS HOSPITALITY BRIDGING THE
GAPS IN HEALTHCARE SECTOR?
Introduction to Hospitality:
In the last decade, many hospital designs have taken inspiration from hotels, spurred
by factors such as increased patient and family expectations and regulatory or financial
incentives. Although the findings underscore the need for more hospitality like

environments in hospitals, the investment decisions made by healthcare

executives must be balanced with cost-effectiveness and the assurance that clinical
excellence remains the top priority.
Hospitality elements applied in existing hospitals that are addressed in this
article include hotel-like rooms and decor; actual hotels incorporated into medical
centers; hotel-quality food, room service, and dining facilities for families; welcoming

lobbies and common spaces; hospitality-oriented customer service training;

enhanced service offerings, including concierges; spas or therapy centers; hotel-style

signage and way-finding tools; and entertainment features. Selected elements that
have potential for future incorporation include executive lounges and/or communal
lobbies with complimentary wireless Internet and refreshments, centralized controls

for patients, and flexible furniture.

In this article it is explained on design and other place-related elements borrowed from the
hospitality industry (which we term hospitality elements) that have been successfully
incorporated in hospitals designed and built primarily over the past decade. It also provides a
detailed review of the academic and applied design literature and outlines additional hospitality
design innovations with the potential for successful implementation in hospitals, which were
developed through interviews with hospital and hotel design experts.
Hospitality Design Elements in Healthcare:

Many hospitals have borrowed a people–processes–place framework, which is frequently used

by the hospitality industry to improve service quality. For example, some hospitals have

outsourced their dining services, maintenance, facilities management, engineering, biomedical

equipment management, and housekeeping functions to hospitality service providers such

as ARAMARK Healthcare and Sodexo, while others have worked with hotel operating

companies or hospitality related firms such as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Four Seasons

Hotels and Resorts, and the Walt Disney Company for training in service processes and

management.

The Medical Hotel:

Medical hotels accommodate a growing need in the healthcare marketplace, as the trend toward
shorter inpatient stays increase the demand for convenient, comfortable, and affordable lodging
or step-down facilities near the treatment facility. The advantages to owners of medical hotels
over those of other hotel property types are their strong occupancies, lack of seasonality, and
relatively low marketing costs given the strong demand generated by the hospital. it consists of
various facilities that are enlisted below:
1. Hospitals with Hotel-Like Patient Rooms:
Single-patient rooms have been shown to help reduce medical error rates, lessen patient
stress and depression, and shorten length of stay while increasing overall satisfaction with the
hospital[4]. Many newly designed hospitals have private single rooms that offer in-room “stay
over” facilities for family members, thereby serving the role of a hotel to non-patient guests,
who interact with staff and the environment in new, distinctive ways. Some hospitals have
moved beyond offering the comfort of private, single patient rooms to providing luxury
suites to compete for customers who are willing to pay additional out-of-pocket costs that are
typically not covered by insurance companies.

2. Welcoming lobbies:
Many hospitals built or remodeled since the 1990s have been inspired by hotel design, in
particular the idea of grand lobbies that incorporate atriums and other dramatic design elements.
Although some hospitals have reported great success in adopting concierge and similar
programs[1] other organizations have not achieved the positive outcomes they had expected. The
implementation of any such program must be carefully conceived.
3. Hotel-Style Signage and Way Finding:
Patient room signage often uses cryptic numbering or follows patterns that are difficult for
newcomers to interpret. A better approach may be hotel style sequential room numbering that
is intuitive and familiar. Some hospitals have also used landmarks such as ponds and art
pieces to help patients and visitors orient themselves in the building, following the examples
of hotels using lobby elements such as clocks and fountains as way-finding devices. Children
also have their own library, with storytelling events and other educational activities. The
center is staffed seven days a week by hospital personnel and volunteers.

4. Hospital Spas, Therapy Programs, and Wellness Centers:

Spas and wellness centers or programs address the social, psychological, spiritual,
physical, and behavioral components of health and well-being. Spas and wellness facilities
located in hospitals can potentially offer benefits to a variety of organizations and their
employees in the community, not just the hospital itself [3]. They can help the clinical staff
capitalize on all possible avenues of healing for the patients’ benefit and provide patients
with complementary and alternative medical (CAM) services not always offered in
traditional hospital settings.

5. Hotel-Quality Food and Family Dining:

Five-star hotels employ trained chefs who use the finest ingredients and techniques
to delight patrons. In contrast, hospitals have historically served food that is limited in depth
beyond its nutritional purpose. Simple changes such as serving a freshly baked basket of
bread, as is standard practice in fine-dining restaurants, or offering guests warm chocolate
chip cookies at turndown, a signature amenity, can help make guests feel welcome and
pampered.

6. Hospital Concierge, Special Guests Services, and Service Training Programs:

While design and specialized programs can be important in their own right, many hospitals
have recognized that hospitality training and hiring tools and techniques can be extremely
valuable in promoting high levels of service and a positive patient/family experience[2].
Examples adopted by some community hospitals and members of the Academic Medical
Center Consortium include concierge or special services for employees, seamless clinical
referral programs for patients, and personalized services for staff and guests.
 Features Perceived
Effect/Outcomes
1. Hotel-like rooms • Improve patient satisfaction;
allow use of family as
caregiver resource.
• Create new revenue stream
for hospitals
2. Medical hotels • Provide spaces for families
• Create new revenue stream
for hospital.
3. Hospital • Establish branding for
spas/wellness hospital
programs • Improve patient satisfaction.
4. Hotel-quality food • Improve patient satisfaction
and family dining • Improve family satisfaction
• Provide patient and family
dietary -education
• Reduce food waste
5. Welcoming lobbies/ • Improve patient satisfaction
green spaces • Improve visitor satisfaction
6. Hospital concierge/ • Improve employee
special guest satisfaction
services/ service • Improve patient satisfaction
training programs • Improve visitor satisfaction
7. Hotel-style signage • Cause fewer patients/
and way-finding visitors to become lost and
tools be late for appointments
• Reduce staff time needed to
provide directions
8. Libraries • Improve family/visitor
satisfaction
• Improve patient satisfaction
9. Themed bathrooms • Improve patient/visitor
satisfaction
10. Expandable patient • Improve patient satisfaction
rooms
• Allow adaptability for
multiple uses
• Generate revenue
Fig 1: Comparison of Hospital Elements
Main Challenges in
Implementation
• Create disruption to
existing operations
• Require single-patient
rooms
• Impose higher cost on
patients
• Require space for
expansion or land to
develop.
• May trigger competition
for spaces with other
services in hospital that
may be perceived as
more important
• Require changes in food
delivery system and
related facilities
• Require hiring of
personnel for in-room
services
• Result in high operating
costs (e.g., energy,
cleaning)
• Require training and
program development
• Increase operating costs
• Require integration with
other way-finding
elements
(e.g., website)
• May lead to competition
for existing spaces with
in hospitals
• Require accommodation
to plumbing equipment
limitations
• Must work around
existing structural walls
IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUS ION
Hotels and hospitals share the challenge of designing facilities that are functional, are cost-
effective, and promote their organizations’ missions. The hospital must not lose sight of its
primary goal of providing quality clinical care when it considers allocating resources to
hospitality-oriented enhancements. Implementing hospitality design elements within the hospital
is a complex process. It requires careful planning; systematic thinking; and consideration of a
variety of factors, including the healthcare system, needs of different stakeholders, unique
attributes of organizational or community cultures, other improvement efforts.

References

1. Hines, L. (2009, November 26). Riverside hospital banks on concierges to build business,
2. Rutes, W., Penner, R., & Adams, L. (2001). Hotel design, planning and development.
New York, NY: W. W. Norton.
employee satisfaction. Retrieved from http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland /stories/PE
News Local S concierge27.3a13f5e.html
3. Nicholson, S., Pauly, M. V., Polsky, D., Baase, C. M., Billotti, G. M., Ozminkowski, R.
J., Sharda, C. E. (2005). How to present the business case for healthcare quality to
employers. Retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/papers/1303.pdf
4. Ulrich, R. S., Zimring, C., Zhu, X., DuBose, J., Seo, H. B, Choi, Y. S., .Joseph, A.
(2008). A review of the research literature on evidence-based healthcare design. Health
Environments Research & Design, 1(3), 61–125.