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

The paper suggests a working definition of hospitality which may be both appropriate to the hospital environment, and amenable to evaluation through patient questionnaire analysis, and would prove to be a useful management tool for evaluating patient services in NHS hospitals.

Abstract

Intuitively, it would seem that there is a good case for seeing hospitality as a desirable attribute in a satisfactory hospital stay. This notion is thoroughly examined through the evaluation of various definitions of the concept of hospitality in the literature. The paper suggests a working definition of hospitality which may be both appropriate to the hospital environment, and amenable to evaluation through patient questionnaire analysis. The results show that the working definition of hospitality was credible and would prove to be a useful management tool for evaluating patient services in NHS hospitals.