Hospitality & Service Management Expert Group
Our topics
Our Expert Group researches and works on topics in the context of hospitality and service management. The focus is on stakeholder-centric management of services, for example in healthcare organisations, gastronomic businesses and hotels. In collaboration with our research partners, we examine research questions and develop systematic approaches. With our business partners, we analyze problems, develop practicable solutions and support their implementation. Our customers and partners are businesses and institutions of any size.
Research and development
The group's applied research and development activities focus on the development or enhancement of processes and methods, and on FM-related strategic issues in a whole-business context, taking into account demographic, economic and regulatory developments, and their impact on companies and the services they provide.
Consultancy and services
The group offers its clients a comprehensive range of services; it not only evaluates operational processes within companies in the capacity of an independent expert, but also provides strategic consultancy services and works together with its clients to develop proposals for improvements and implementation-ready solutions. We collaborate closely with the IFM's other Expert Groups as well as the remaining ZHAW Institutes and other universities.
Teaching
The group's teaching approach combines theory with applied practice on the basis of scientifically proven knowledge. Its courses cover theoretical and management-related findings as well as the technical and mathematical skills which the hospitality and service managers of the future will need. The following courses are offered to BSc and MSc students: Food Service Processes and Management, Value Creation (strategy development, event management, accommodation and business plans), Textile and Cleaning Management and Procurement Management. The group also passes on strategic findings from its research projects in the field of healthcare and consumer FM.
Focal points
Digital Transformation for FM in HC
The digital transformation of non-medical services in healthcare organisations will play a crucial role in the years to come. The Hospitality & Service Management Expert Group researches this topic with a holistic and interdisciplinary approach all the way to specific impacts and measures for Facility Management. In a first step, the strategic need for action for digitalisation in healthcare organisations was examined. The resulting Innosuisse project Digital Competence for Healthcare (DC4HC), had the goal to develop a digital maturity model for the assessment of non-medical support processes.
Food Services in Healthcare Organisations
The provision of food and beverages plays a major role in healthcare organisations. Our team addresses the topic in a number of ways, e.g. in the context of concepts for patient hospitality and staff culinary, on the strategic and tactical level, the digitalisation of catering (project DIGINUT), in researching approaches to data-driven decision support in hospital gastronomy, by examining the vegetable preparation of the future, by dealing with Future Restauration 2030 or by developing mobile, on-the-spot breakfast catering.
Food for Care
The provision of food and beverages plays a major role in healthcare organisations. Our team addresses the topic in a number of ways, e. g. in the context of the use of technology to make catering services in care homes more flexible.
Hotel Industry Benchmarking in Healthcare
The "Hotellerie Benchmark" comprises the areas of catering and cleaning; the survey and evaluation takes place on a yearly basis and currently includes almost 50 healthcare institutions of acute hospitals, rehab clinics, psychiatric clinics and asylums.
FM in Healthcare Illustrated
The graphical representation of interdependencies can help to reduce complexity and enhance manageability. The Bachelor thesis “To see interrelations – illustrations of interdependencies in patient-centred resource management in hospitals” approaches this topic in collaboration with the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
Professional Project Management in Healthcare Organisations
We are engaged in the development of project management and project-oriented procedures in healthcare organisations, e. g. in the context of the spm project management association's specialist group PM in Healthcare Organisations.
Reference Model for Non-medical Support Services in Hospitals
In order to illustrate complex interconnections of FM in HC in a clear manner, the Reference Model for Non-medical Support Services in Hospitals [RemoS] was developed in collaboration with four hospitals and three partners in industry. The model shows the connections between the result-oriented services in the Service Catalogue for Non-Medical Support Services in Hospitals [LekaS], the underlying processes [PromoS], the related key performance indicators (parameters) [KenkaS] and the corresponding software applications [ApplikaS]. The Reference Model is the basis for the Guideline to use SAP for Facility Management in Healthcare [LesapS] and the IT-supported Assessment, Simulation and Benchmarking Tool for Facility Management in Healthcare [ASBT-FM].
Our projects
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DIGINUT – Comprehensive Digitalisation of Patient Nutrition Uptake in Health Care
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DC4HC – Digital Competence for Healthcare
The Innosuisse project, Digital Competence for Healthcare (DC4HC), aims to develop a digital platform that will support Swiss healthcare institutions in their digital transformation efforts. In particular, the focus of DC4HC is on the non-medical support services. A state-of-the-art digital maturity model framework ...
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Cleaning Isolation rooms used by Covid-19 patients
The Institute for Facility Management (IFM), together with stakeholders from the healthcare and cleaning sectors has produced a series of training videos on cleaning the isolation rooms used by COVID-19 patients. To train cleaners on how to clean isolation rooms with COVID-19 patients and ensure their safety. This ...
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Data-driven decision support for intracranial aneurysms and hospital catering using Bayesian networks
Clinical decisions in medicine and management decisions in facility management are regularly made on the basis of little evidence or extrapolations and are also influenced by subjective and economic aspects. While data is generated exponentially in medicine due to increasing digitization, there is no framework for ...
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Determining the strategic need for action in the digitalization of hospitals on a normative, strategic and operational level
Increasing cost pressure and the required competitiveness are forcing Swiss hospitals to optimize their non-medical processes, in particular regarding efficiency and productivity. Digitalization introduces new opportunities for transforming business processes that meet future health policy requirements and support ...
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SmartCareNet
The players in the Swiss healthcare system are facing major challenges. Overall, they are experiencing a transformation of the care system in two ways: On the one hand, through a shift from a purely supply-oriented to a demand-oriented system, and on the other hand, through digitalisation and the associated ...
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Data analysis as a basis for the development of a KPI system for non-medical support services in hospitals
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Platform Health
Researchers from the School of Life Sciences and Facility Management (LSFM) initiated a platform to promote interdisciplinary research in the field of health. The School of LSFM supports this initiative to increase visibility of all health-research related activities in teaching, R&D, continued education, and ...
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Standardized Room Categories in Hospitals (RakaS)
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AALBridge
AAL-solutions and AI becomes more and more of interest for care and senior living facilities. However, this often very small entities lack access to and the know-how of how to use and introduce these solutions. In addition, transitional care and with that the 'Hospital at Home' asks for new care logics with new ...
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Digital Services as part of the non-medical support services in hospitals
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ActiveAdvice
The ActiveAdvice project aims to deliver a fully functional ICT environment with specific web and mobile services for older adults and their relatives, for professionals in inclusive design and construction engineering across Europe, as well as for governments and municipalities involved in Active and Assisted ...
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Project Management in Hospitals (FM)
The importance of Project Management (PM) in hospitals is growing due to the increasing amalgamation of disciplines in conjunction with the need for greater efficiency and quality of services in hospitals. Current experience in hospital projects and conversations with people involved in hospital projects has led to ...
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FM goes independently / SLA Good Practice for FM in Healthcare
Up until now, work in hospitals has been carried out more or less when called upon and rarely on the basis of systematic, written Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Due to increasing cost pressures and the resulting need for greater efficiency and quality in healthcare, the topic of SLAs is becoming increasingly ...
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iCareCooperatives
The iCareCoops project tackles the increasing demand for elderly care at a time of limited resources. Eight partners from seven European countries aimed to create novel ICT-driven solutions to empower care givers and older people in need of care to extend the time they can live in their preferred environment by ...
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Development of an IT supported assessment tool and a corresponding introduction manual for the relevant Facility Management process applications in hospitals on the basis of an adaptive reference model
The introduction of the diagnosis-related groups/Swiss DRG causes amongst other things a greater demand for transparency, including in non-medical support services [FM] in hospitals. In order to meet this, it is necessary to have a systematic way of measuring and comparing services in order to come up with specific ...
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Mobile, on-the-spot Breakfast Catering
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Chart of accounts, cost center structures and cost unit accounting for non-medical support services in hosptials (KoKoS)
Development of an encompassing chart of accounts for non-medical support services in hospitals including a corresponding cost center structure and cost unit accounting as a basis for a correct allocation of cost and thus as basis for tools for benchmarking and strategy.
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KJM - KleenlineJonmaster
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Service Allocation Model for Non-medical Support Services
LemoS illustrates the scope of Facility Management in Healthcare (FM in HC) and is based on the SN EN 15221-4 norm. The Service Allocation Model for non-medical Support Services in Hospitals (LemoS) was developed in interdisciplinary consortial collaboration with partners in business and science. As new finding ...
Our publications
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Merkle, Thorsten; Diez, Karin; Gerber, Nicole; Jeanfavre, Elsa,
2024.
Innovationsforschung im Bereich Gästeservice / Hotellerie in Spitälern.
Wädenswil:
ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-29836
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Merkle, Thorsten; Plüss, Till,
2024.
Organisationsformen des Facility Management in Schweizer Akutspitälern.
Wädenswil:
ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-29640
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Merkle, Thorsten; Jeanfavre, Elsa; Gerber, Nicole; Braun, Lisa; Kornsteiner, Tania; Umbricht, Benedikt,
2023.
In:
40th Annual European Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (EuroCHRIE) Conference, Vienna, Austria, 3-6 October 2023.
Winterthur:
ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-28843
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Müller, Noemi; Pericin Häfliger, Irina,
2023.
Hauswirtschaft und Wissenschaft.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.23782/HUW_04_2023
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Gerber, Nicole; Merkle, Thorsten,
2023.
Individualisierte Verpflegung – ein Megatrend.
In:
8. Fachkonferenz – Das Pflegeheim der Zukunft, Blezinger Healthcare, Luzern, Schweiz, 22.-23. Juni 2023.
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Institute for Facility Management
FM in HC
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