Healthcare and hospitality may seem worlds apart, yet they share more common ground than most realize. While one focuses on healing and the other on comfort, both industries are discovering they have a lot to learn from each other.
This convergence represents one of the most compelling developments in modern medical administration. As healthcare systems worldwide grapple with rising costs and operational efficiency challenges, industry leaders are looking to hospitality models for solutions.
After all, both industries revolve around people, where trust, empathy, and attention to detail determine outcomes as much as systems and infrastructure do.
In a recent webinar with EHL, Patrik Bruhlmann, CEO & Board Director of Pacific Healthcare Group of Companies, explored these fascinating parallels between two industries that share more than just etymological roots.
Drawing from decades of experience in healthcare management across multiple markets, he shared his views on financial structures, future developments, and the career opportunities awaiting hotel management graduates looking to transition into medical service management.
This article captures key insights from that conversation.
The Human Element
The connection between hospitality and healthcare begins with language itself. Both “hospital” and “hospitality” share the Latin root hospes, meaning “to provide shelter and friendliness.” That origin underscores a truth that is easy to overlook: care and comfort are inseparable.
In hotels, comfort is non-negotiable. Guests expect to feel welcome, well-served, and at ease. Yet in hospitals, where recovery depends not only on medicine but also on emotional well-being, this dimension of care is often treated as secondary.
Bruhlmann believes this is a missed opportunity. “How well a patient feels and how properly looked after they are can be as critical to recovery as the diagnosis itself,” he has noted elsewhere.
He advocates for hospitals to recruit service-oriented professionals, particularly from food and beverage or rooms-division backgrounds, to bring that culture of attentiveness into medical environments.
Quality service is not a luxury. Even modest facilities, like budget hotels, succeed by matching expectations to affordability, which is an approach that hospitals could learn from.
Who Pays, Who Decides
If hospitality and medicine share a service ethos, their business models diverge sharply when it comes to who pays. In hospitality, consumers hold the power. A dissatisfied guest can check out and walk across the street to another hotel. Prices are transparent, and choice is immediate.
In healthcare, the decision-making process is far more complex. Payment structures, whether through insurance, government programs, or self-pay models, shape not only how care is delivered but also who controls the experience.
Patients rarely choose their doctors freely, and most hospitals operate within networks or public systems that limit flexibility.
Bruhlmann points out that this dynamic profoundly affects expectations and accountability. Unlike restaurants or hotels, hospitals do not have “TripAdvisor”-style feedback loops that directly influence demand. This lack of immediate consumer leverage makes it harder for the sector to evolve around service quality.
Revenue, Resources, and Utilization
When viewed through an operational lens, hospitals and hotels share surprisingly similar fundamentals. Both rely on optimizing physical assets such as rooms, equipment, and staff time to drive revenue.
Hotels measure success through metrics like RevPAR (revenue per available room). Hospitals, in parallel, might consider revenue per doctor or utilization rates for operating theatres and diagnostic equipment.
Machines such as MRI scanners or X-ray units, if idle, represent lost income. Extending their operating hours or coordinating pre- and post-consultation tests can dramatically improve efficiency.
The same principle applies to space management: non-revenue areas are kept minimal, while treatment and diagnostic zones are prioritized for maximum use.
However, unlike hotels, hospitals must balance this efficiency with medical necessity and staff availability. Doctors and nurses are scarce and highly specialized resources. Their costs are largely fixed, making flexibility difficult.
As Bruhlmann has observed, this rigidity becomes especially challenging during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, when operating below capacity does not necessarily mean lower expenses.
Still, there is an upside. Once a hospital crosses its break-even threshold, each additional patient adds disproportionately to profit, much like in airlines or hotels. Throughput, not price, becomes the key driver of success.
Innovation and the E-Healthcare Challenge
Technology is changing healthcare delivery around the world, from telemedicine to home-based care. Telemedicine, home diagnostics, and remote monitoring all promise to reduce costs and expand access. Yet the question remains: can these models ever replace traditional hospitals?
Bruhlmann is cautiously optimistic but realistic about their limits. Some companies now offer intensive care at home, supplying equipment and digital monitoring systems, but profitability remains elusive.
The bottleneck is not technology; it is human time. Doctors sell expertise by the minute, not the mile. A home visit that consumes hours of travel for only a few minutes of consultation simply does not make economic sense.
Video consultations surged during the pandemic, demonstrating the value of convenience. But diagnostics (blood tests, imaging, and physical examinations) still require in-person visits. “You can’t press a patient’s abdomen through a screen,” as Bruhlmann has remarked.
For that reason, E-healthcare is likely to complement rather than replace hospitals. The diagnostics business, he predicts, will become an even more significant pillar of the medical ecosystem.
Senior Living: Where Hospitality Comes Full Circle
Few sectors illustrate the convergence of these domains as clearly as senior living. Modern retirement communities blend residential comfort with medical oversight, offering tiered care models that evolve with residents’ needs.
In markets like Australia, some facilities operate much like resorts. Residents purchase a share or apartment, move through progressively supported environments as their health changes, and eventually return their units to the shared pool upon passing.
Yet even these models struggle with profitability. Staffing remains the greatest cost and constraint. The question of who pays (the resident, family, insurer, or government) continues to define the sector’s growth potential.
Still, Bruhlmann sees opportunity in repurposing existing infrastructure. During COVID-19, countless hotels sat empty. He suggests that some could be transformed into long-term care residences or rehabilitation centers, partnering with hospitals to provide medical oversight.
“It’s about giving a property a new life cycle,” he has said, a pragmatic idea that underscores the adaptability shared by both industries.
Career Advice
For graduates and professionals, the health sector offers a wealth of untapped opportunity. The skills that make great hotel managers (empathy, organization, service design, and leadership) translate naturally into patient-facing roles and healthcare operations.
Bruhlmann believes service providers such as catering, housekeeping, and facility management companies can serve as ideal entry points.
Working within these adjacent industries builds credibility and familiarity with hospital culture, which can sometimes feel insular to outsiders. Understanding its professional language and dynamics is crucial to success.
While full-degree programs in health management remain rare, short executive courses and specialized certifications are expanding, especially in regions where private hospital networks are strong.
For those willing to adapt their service expertise to a clinical environment, the career possibilities are substantial.
Hospitality in Healthcare Key Takeaways
The intersection of these domains reveals a shared philosophy: both exist to serve people at pivotal moments in their lives. Whether through a warm welcome or attentive bedside care, the essence of success lies in human connection.
As health management systems evolve, facing demographic shifts, digital transformation, and financial pressure, adopting lessons could redefine how care is delivered.
For the next generation of service professionals, this convergence offers more than a career path; it offers a chance to restore humanity to systems that, at their best, should heal both body and spirit.
