The New Health Care for Profit: Doctors and Hospitals in a Competitive Environment

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1983-04 edition. Excerpt: ...compensated by hospitals are more often found in teaching hospitals than in nonteaching hospitals.20 They also are more common in for-profit hospitals than in voluntary hospitals.21 Systematic longitudinal data are not available, but a general reading of the literature and conversations with hospital administrators and medical staffs suggest that physician involvement in governing board activities, participation in committees, and hospital-based compensation arrangements is growing. For example, over the past five years a number of hospitals have added cost containment committees, medical equipment purchase committees, and strategic long-range planning committees, all with physician participation. Thus, there appears to be a growing trend toward the shared authority model of decision making described earlier or at least deliberate attempts to blur the clear demarcation suggested by the dual authority model. Some of the effects of these changes on the cost and quality of patient care are examined below. Hospital/Physician Decision Making and the Cost and Quality of Care The issue of hospital/physician decision making is important primarily as it affects the delivery of patient care services. The relevant question is whether certain patterns of decision making are associated with improvements in the cost-effectiveness of the care delivered. Present research does not provide a clear-cut answer in terms of cause and effect, but the majority of the existing evidence suggests consistent associations between greater physician involvement in hospital decision making and lower costs. Existing research also suggests consistent associations between greater physician participation and higher quality of care. There is little evidence that costs can be...