HOSPITALS - TO THE NEXT MILLENNIUM

Hospitals are changing. Throughout the OECD the hospital, that endurin g and pervasive organization which has delivered the vast majority of acute care services for decades, is being reconceptualized. We briefly analyse trends which clearly indicate that the existing concept of th e hospital is rapidly coming to an end. The emerging model consists of a core facility comprising only the most acute services, intensive ca re, operating theatres and an accident and emergency unit, with all ot her services and units linked by information technology to each other and to the core facility. We explore some of the management challenges confronting those who will be responsible for taking their organizati on through the transition to the boundaryless hospital arrangement, di scuss a number of the existing problems with today's hospitals which t he new model has the propensity to resolve, and deal with some of the emerging issues which it brings with it.