Primary care: hospitals begin to target community needs.
When financial doom threatened St. John (KS) District Hospital, executives there adopted an unusual strategy. In a bid for survival, St. John is abandoning its acute care service and converting to a primary care-only facility. St. John executives viewed their decision as one way to keep health care services available in a one-hospital town. Other hospital executives are also realizing that expanding primary care services is a smart move. According to experts, in the long run such a move will also help to enhance market share for these hospitals. The need to expand primary health care services has also not escaped the notice of the federal government. Physician payment reform puts more money in the pockets of primary care physicians. "The Health Care Financing Administration is beginning to realize their bang for the buck is in primary care and prevention," says one physician.
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D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003625:Data Collection; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000639:trends*; D006746:Hospital Bed Capacity, 500 and over; D006754:Hospital Restructuring / Q000639:trends*; D007615:Kansas; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D013781:Texas; D014481:United States