Introduction

Abstract

Like many American industries, health care has undergone a fundamental restructuring in the past ten years, and it faces signficant change throughout the 1990s. Health care has gone from a relatively stable industry to a dynamic one. Even though most hospitals still look the same, the industry has changed fundamentally. The government has changed the way that it reimburses hospitals for Medicare/Medicaid patients. Consumer attitudes have changed. There is a nursing shortage. Payer practices have changed. Doctor behaviors have changed. Hospital attitudes towards patients have changed. Hospital attitudes towards management have changed. Many management disciplines, previously unknown or unneeded in hospital management, have been adopted by hospitals. They include marketing, product line management, cost accounting, materials management, and information systems architecture. Information systems management in hospitals has been particularly weak historically.