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The purpose of this paper is to explore an organization‐wide philosophy of hospitality in a hospital setting.

An exploratory case study method approach matched the research purpose. First, a hospitality centric philosophy (HCP) was defined from the literature review. Next, a triangulation of unstructured visits, structured visits and key informant interviews is used to further explore a HCP in one organization. After this, the hospitality centric programs (HCPr) supporting the HCP are defined, identified, described and classified.

A fairly distinct HCP viewed as a method for enhancing service excellence was in place and supported by top management. The hospital aimed to offer hospitality to patients on par with the hospitality experience offered to hotel guests. A department of hospitality services, a service excellence council, a director of service excellence, and an external hospitality advisory board were in place and met regularly. Further, many formalized HCPr had been created for the execution of the HCP.

The researchers believe that an effectively managed HCP can be modified by culture to enhance the service excellence of the patient/guest experience in hospitals and in the hospitality industry. For hospitals, further enhancements can be realized through developing and executing hospitality centric goals aligned with the performance metrics beyond traditional competition boundaries, such as a hospital seeking to deliver a service experience on par with a hotel. For more traditionally defined hospitality businesses, the extreme context of a hospital where the importance of hospitality is magnified due to treating and caring for sick guests offers a different frame of reference for learning. This new frame of reference can lead to more cutting edge ideas for refining and customizing the service design and delivery. For both hospitals and hospitality businesses, putting in place an HCP with the appropriate organizational support through HCPr allows for more precise information and thus improved service outcomes.

An HCP is defined and acknowledged as a distinct organization‐wide philosophy for enhancing service excellence that is applicable across industries. An HCP is demystified through investigating hospitality centric goals, identifying organizational support teams that solely consider HCP, and through further specifying examples of HCPr for activating the HCP. Finally, the study suggests hospitality centric service excellence (HCSE) as a higher distinction of service excellence outcome that is more likely to be achieved through a HCP.

The aim of this paper is to scan the evidence and to make sense of the processes underpinning the maintenance of care standards and the meaning and significance of whistleblowing in the available literature. It formed part of a project examining attitudes to whistleblowing in the care of older people in Wales. The paper focusses on the actions of employees within organizations (such as hospitals or domiciliary care organizations) or professional groups (such as nurses and doctors) but does not include reference to whistleblowing or the raising of concerns by members of the public (such as relatives or patients).

–Published literature concerning whistleblowing in the UK and internationally was considered. Health and social care databases were searched (including PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, BNI, PsychLit, ERIC) and a wide variety of opinion pieces, research and theoretical explorations were accessed. Additionally, because whistleblowing occurs in workplaces other than health and social care, databases in the humanities, law and business were also searched. Other useful documents included public inquiry reports on matters both of public concern occurring in health and social care (e.g. The Shipman Inquiry, The Bristol Inquiry) as well as inquiries into events outside of this sector where whistleblowing was significant.

–There is no widely accepted theoretical framework or universally accepted conceptual underpinning for whistleblowing in the literature. This paper reveals various associated meanings, but all sources agree that whistleblowing is an imposed, rather than a chosen, situation and that whistleblowers are usually ordinary people who become aware of negative situations forcing them into a decision to remain silent, or to speak out. Another area of agreement within the literature is that the term whistleblowing has attracted overwhelmingly negative connotations. The simple choice between taking action or remaining silent belies the complexity of workplace cultures; including the care of older people.

–The paper explores a range of published sources from health care as well as other sectors. Although whistleblowing has been recognized as making an important contribution to patient safety, and the saving of lives, it has also had a somewhat tortured history in the health and social care sector, as well as in other industries. This paper explores whistleblowing in the context of recent UK policy developments and suggests the need for workplace cultures to be better understood; as well as promotion of open communication regarding concerns or unsafe practices.