Lawrence Chan: Making hospitals more hospitable

When Lawrence Chan joined the Hospital Authority (HA) Board this year after decades at the helm of a privately held international hotel group, he quickly discovered he had entered a field with many similarities to the one in which he spent his entire career. “Hotels and hospitals both need to serve 24 hours a day, and both have an emphasis on hospitality and being able to respond at any time,” observes Lawrence, who plans to use his deep expertise in hotel management to help the HA provide patients with a higher quality healthcare experience.

“Since joining the HA, I have visited different hospitals and seen the immense pressure on frontline colleagues. But even in the face of problems such as manpower shortages, they overcome the difficulties and dedicate themselves to looking after the patients.” Lawrence believes Hong Kong’s public hospitals are highly efficient with excellent and reliable healthcare services, including advanced surgery alongside hi-tech equipment. His concern, however, is for non-clinical services which can make or break the patient experience. “I believe the members of the public will be able to feel the true heart of our healthcare colleagues with every small change,” he says. “I look forward to making use of my experience in the hotel industry to provide more practical suggestions.”

Patient experience begins with registration at hospital

Hotels and hospitals are particularly similar in the areas of room management and manpower deployment, Lawrence observes, including the need to maintain service and hygiene standards for towel use and cleansing and sterilisation. All these mean that there are ample opportunities for knowledge transfer between the two sectors. The patient experience is not limited to hospitalisation and surgery, but in fact begins when a patient walks into a hospital and registers, Lawrence points out. Similarly, in hotels, front desk staff are the ones who give guests the first impression, and as such, they need good communication skills. In hospitals, the stakes are even higher because patients feel unwell, and a long wait would compound their frustration. “We rely on our frontline staff to let the patients understand their situation, such as how much longer they have to wait; effective and passionate communication in this regard demonstrates the hospital’s caring nature.”

Outside of work, Lawrence is active in community affairs and has established a charitable foundation to provide voluntary medical services to poor areas in Southeast Asia; in fact, he has personally visited Cambodia no less than 40 times. He turned his attention to the development of medical services in Hong Kong when the epidemic struck and soon included mental health and wellness in his portfolio of charitable projects. “My charitable purpose is to help relieve the pain and suffering of people,” he explains. “Medical services in Hong Kong are advanced, but the mental health problem is getting more and more serious, so it is worthwhile to put more resources in mental health education.”

Profile of Lawrence Chan

• Director of a privately held international hotel group
• Founder of a charitable foundation
• Professor of Practice (Hospitality Asset Management) in the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Motto: Start small and dream big