If the Doctors Owned the Hospitals

Abstract

Large voluntary hospitals function at an unacceptable level of efficiency in this age of technologic and management capability. Many of the problems are the result of a system of governance that precludes the application of rational management principles. Hospital trusteeship must become more representative of the public served and develop competencies and characteristics inherent in the corporate model. The using physician, who initiates all hospital activity, must share in accountability for the cost of those activities. In the absence of the accountability imposed by the employer-employee relation, his share of responsibility should be identified by financial investment.