Acute care hospitals and community health.
Hospital boards and executives must resist the pressure to become all things health in the community. Hospital executives must educate their boards about the importance of concentrating on their core business and avoiding entangling and potentially risky ventures in peripheral and unrelated activities. They can and should participate in community health initiatives, but such efforts should, at most, be incidental to delivery of acute care services. The Drucker quote at the beginning of this column should be a warning to all who would venture even a short distance from their core business.
Darr
K
K
Department of Health Services Management and Policy, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA.
D018672:Community Health Planning / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006075:Governing Board; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D014481:United States