McConnell Charles R. (ed.) Hospitals and Health Systems: What They Are and How They Work

Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2019. — 254 p. — ISBN: 9781284143560Hospitals and Health Systems: What They Are and How They Work is a comprehensive look at the inner workings of the modern health care organization. Divided into four parts, it begins with a survey of the evolution of the hospital from its beginnings up to the modern free-standing facility. The author then examines the entry of government into health care, reaction to cost escalation, and reimbursement system as well as the development and growth in importance of the health system. Readers will also understand how the free-standing, individual hospital facility operates in delivering care.Hospitals: Origins and Growth: From Early Times to 1900
Becoming the Center of the “Healthcare System”: 1900 to 1945
The American Hospital from 1945 to the Present
Medicare and Medicaid: Major Game-Changers
Enter Managed Care
Health Benefits Coverage and Types of Health Plans
Reimbursement: Following the Money
Is Bigger Better? Hospitals and “Merger Mania”
The Health System Emerges
Mergers, Acquisitions, and the Government
Structure, Organization, and Portals to Care
Direct Patient Care: The Hospital Team
Staffing Shortages: Then, Now, and Continuing
The Physical Facility
Business Activities and the Business of Medicine
Unions in Healthcare Organizations