Launch of the Hospitality Healthcare Education Platform (HHEP)

What is being done and what could be done in hospitals from a hospitality point of view? This is the question that this kick-off of HHEP meant to answer on Thursday 29 April with over 40 hospitality academics, students and hospital professionals came together online.

Dr Onno Guicherit, Oncologist surgeon at HMC in The Hague, shared his personal and professional hospitality experiences, how hospitality students from HTH worked on improving the patient journey, and a study into how foreign diplomats experience the Dutch healthcare system. He stressed the importance of putting medical students and hospitality students together so they could see through each other's eyes. Dr Guicherit pointed out that medical students are seen to have excellent critical thinking skills, but that hotel school students have excellent soft skills such as creativity and problem solving.

Each of the five Dutch hotel schools then introduced themselves and the kind of research they are involved in. While much is around the patient experience, other research is about healthy and sustainable food, the importance of the tangible and the intangible environment, art in hospitals, the use of Virtual Reality goggles, and developing an 'experience of hospitality' scale measuring how people experience the hospitality of an organisation.

The last part of the afternoon was a break-out session where participants shared experiences and opportunities for research. At the final wrap-up key themes included hospitable culture, food, blue-printing, logistics, being human-centric and the importance of communication. The point was also made that great strides have been taken already and that there is much best-practice to build on within Dutch and international hospitals.

Background

Back in March 2021, five Dutch hotel schools started a collaborative research platform about hospitality in hospitals. Hotel schools are regularly approached by hospitals for their know-how in hospitality, especially when it comes to improving patient or employee experience, on- and offboarding, nutritional concepts, or signposting.

For more information regarding the project, click here.