Far too often, hospitality-based healthcare design devolves into generic solutions focused on hotel-like amenities, services, and interior design. Such a response is understandable, as the two share common characteristics: parking, check-in, overnight stays, meals, and the like. The patient experience is not, however, grounded in leisure or business, as pure consumerism. Patients are not on vacation, nor have they necessarily chosen to buy the service. Moreover, patients are not directly paying for the service. The patient cannot demand a positive outcome and is not always right – satisfaction does not always correlate with quality. The patient and family could be described, rather, as reluctant customers. If we are to design both an environment and service to entice this reluctant customer, we must first understand the underpinnings of hospitality beyond the provision of food, drink, and accommodation. In this session, we will review the definitions and theory of hospitality across history and a range of disciplines, and delve into several organizing domains by which we might begin to ideate on a novel response to the conference proposition: Patient Experience – Hospitality Bringing the Patients Back. Specific domains include: social/cultural, by which hospitality facilitates relationships and manages strangers both human and technological, i.e., safety layouts and inclusive design; private/domestic, setting the benchmark by which commercial hospitality is often judged, i.e., hosting design affordances; and commercial, questioning the authenticity of hospitality in such a sector and directing attention to staff behavior, i.e., efficiency as inhospitable and supportive design for staff. As we link these domains to their built environment implications, we will see how hospitality for healthcare has yet to be fully explored and identify opportunities for design and exploration. Core Competencies: Strategic Planning; Space Planning and Programming; Design; A-E Selection Process; Transition Planning AIA Course Number: 2023.05.008 AIA CEU = 1 LU