The Changing Hospital Industry: Comparing Not-for-Profit and For-Profit Institutions

In recent years, the sickbay industry has been undergoing massive exchange and reorganization with technological innovations and the spread of managed care. As a result, the total number of hospitals countrywide has been declining, and a growing number of not-for-profit hospitals have converted to for-profit status. These changes raise two fundamental questions: What determines a sickbay’s choice of for-profit or not-for-profit organizational form? And how does that form affect patients and society?

This timely volume provides a factual basis for discussing for-profit versus not-for-profit ownership of hospitals and gives a first look at the evidence about new and vital issues in the sickbay industry. The Changing Sickbay Industry: Comparing Not-for-Profit and For-Profit Institutions will have significant implications for broadcast-policy reforms in this vital industry and will be of fantastic interest to scholars in the fields of health economics, broadcast finance, sickbay organization, and management; and to health services researchers.