A catalyst for change. A new book depicts the hospital as an instrument for forming social policy.
Most health policy experts see the hospital as the enemy of the people or, at best, as a body repair shop. Rosemary Steven's new book, In Sickness and in Wealth, provides a solid, factual, historical basis for such negative perceptions of the hospital's future role. But in a final brief chapter, she suggests that the voluntary hospital may emerge as an instrument of social policy. Stevens believes that this expanded role is "justified by the historical record--and in the absence of any better alternative." She outlines a three-point program for hospitals to meet the current challenges: "lobbying by consumer groups, hospitals, employers and others for public policy designed to improve individual insurance coverage; mobilization at the local level to define and meet community needs; pressures within the system to bring the major players together to work for common goals." Then hospitals, she continues, "may expand into multi-faceted health-care complexes as the basic notion of the 'hospital' extends beyond the walls of the institution," and "the hospital becomes, in effect, the health-care system."
D005544:Forecasting; D006291:Health Policy; D006761:Hospitals / Q000639:trends*; D006788:Hospitals, Voluntary / Q000639:trends*; D011057:Politics; D012380:Role; D014481:United States