Research: The concept of hospitality and an evaluation of its applicability to the experience of hospital patients

Paper (1990) by: Jill Hepple, Michael Kipps and James Thomson. Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-4319(90)90038-Y.

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Reviewing the hospitality concept, taking account of different definitions, the following characteristics can be identified:

1. Hospitality is conferred on some guest (who is away from their usual home), by some host (who may or may not be in their usual home).
2. The transmission of hospitality is interactive, (involving some coming together of a provider and a receiver).
3. Hospitality comprises a blend of both tangible and intangible factors.
4. the host provides for the guest’s security, the guest’s psychological comfort and the guest’s physiological comfort.

This characteristic [interactivity] has several implications including:

1. The consumer’s impression of the provider is built-up partly from some social
   relationship/ interaction.
2. All the representatives of the hospitality industry who are to come into contact with the consumers will, to some extent, be seen as ambassadors of the establishment. Which must influence staff recruitment, selection, training, assessment, etc.
3. The hospitality experience occurs at a specific time with the attendant problems of perishability. This perishability is meant in the broadest sense, to include for example: Promptness of meal service/ availability of accommodation provision/ presence of polite and attentive staff/ the maintenance of satisfactory standards of cleanliness at all times/ all ‘after-sales service’ is immediate at the point of consumption, in fact synchronic with consumption.

It is suggested that patients should be the first to be considered when undertaking studies of hospitals and that it is important to consider the patient especially where their feelings have a central bearing on how hospitable the experience is judged to be. The treatment given to patients to a large extent, reflects an attitude held by the society in general, to the sick.

• A frequent complaint of patients is that they feel depersonalized by hospitalization.
• Many people involved in health care describe the benefits of a holistic approach. It is recognized that where patients are made to feel individual and important, and where medical staff assess the ‘whole patient’, including an evaluation of emotional, domestic and social contexts, the recovery time is shorter, and it is suggested that the patient feels more satisfied with the treatment received.
• Generally, patients were not found to be abnormally anxious. The interviews revealed that patients had rationalized their need to stay within the institution and would, to a certain extent. go along with the uncomfortable aspects of not being at home.

Generally some agreement was found regarding the sequence in which patients regard the hospitality factors as important to a satisfactory hospital stay, This sequence represents the average importance all respondents assign to each factor, starting with the factor considered to be most important and progressing to the factor considered to be least important. The sequence is as follows:

• Friendly medical staff
• Smooth admissions procedure
• Friendly non-medical staff
• Information regarding routine
• Varied choice on the menu
• Adequate provision for visitors/ visiting
• Comfortable furniture
• Privacy
• Plain cooking
• Attractive surrounding/ decor
• Clear signposting
• Adequate recreational facilities

The factors considered important to hospitality can form a useful basis for management attention when considering the allocation of resources. Also the factors should be considered in any attempt to measure the quality of service offered by hospitals.

The study also suggests that the hospitality factor groupings suggested by Cassee and Reuland (1983), of behaviour, product and environment, the hospitality factors which relate to behaviour are considered to be the most important.

There was also evident concern regarding the medical information/ communication which often appeared to add to the patient’s anxiety.

The subject was highlighted in the patients’ comments, even though all medical concerns were not within the scope of this study. Nevertheless it appears that extra attention paid to these areas would reduce patient anxiety.

As medical science becomes increasingly more complex with sophisticated techniques and more availability of alternatives it is inevitable that the rift of knowledge and communication, between the professional and the layman, becomes increasingly difficult, and yet increasingly important to bridge.

A further question raised by this study is that of the extent to which it is possible. within the hospital context, to educate people. Although there are some patients who prefer not to know the details of their medical condition, a large number wish to understand the illness and treatment.

Education within hospital is, however, a worthy aim, and that the hospital is seen to set a good example of healthy behaviour seems very reasonable; however the extent of its success, with respect to long-term changes within a community cannot be other than limited.