Management in the Health Field - Part I - The Challenge - Interview

Oct 13, 2026

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Management in the Health Field, Part I: The Challenge presents an interview on how healthcare management differs from general business management and what major management problems confront the health sector. The discussion focuses on weak incentives embedded in the system, making cost control the dominant concern for managers, and examines how the healthcare environment developed. It contrasts healthcare with the functioning of a free-market food industry and explores fragmentation and the physician-driven control of utilization and costs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Management in the Health Field

Part I: The Challenge

Spotlight on the Staff

What Others Are Doing

From the Administrator's View

Management of Nursing Care

Managerial Dilemma

Readers Respond

| hM | health
JeViCeS
nn0 | | --- | --- | | Volume 10 Number 11
November 1977
Management in the Health Field
Part I:The Challenge
———
SPOTLIGHT ON THE STAFF
Shared Services
WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING
Travel Information for the Handicapped
FROM THE ADMINISTRATOR'S VIEW
How Unions Affect
Hospital Administration
— —
MANAGEMENT OF NURSING CARE
Occupational Health Nursing:
A Model for Professional Practice
——
MANAGERIAL DILEMMA
Dealing with Delinquents
— —
READERS RESPOND
Printed in U.S.A.91977 by AMACOM.
a division of American Management Associations.
All rights reserved. | Management in the Health Field
Part I:The Challenge
An interview with the directors of the
National Health Care Management Center
Healthcare is the second largest industry in the United
States.Good management in the health field has become es-
sential because of the immense resources of people and dol-
lars involved,rapidly increasing costs,and governmental and
consumer demands for greater accountability by the health-
care delivery systems.Samuel P.Martin,M.D.,and Robert E.
Mittelstaedt,Jir.,the directors of the new National Health
Care Management Center(NHCMC)at the University of
Pennsylvania,recognize the need for improved healthcare
management and are doing something about it.The Center
was established through a five-year grant from HEW to un-
dertake research in healthcare management.The University
of Pennsylvania was chosen to receive the grant on the basis
of the work already being done at the Leonard Davis In-
stitute of Health Economics,a branch of the Wharton Busi-
ness School.Dr.Martin is the executive director,and Mr.
Mittelstaedt is the associate director of the Institute.
What are the major management problems facing the
healthcare sield?What new developments are affecting
healthcare management?What actions should individual
managers bę taking—today?Dr.Martin and Mr.Mittelstaedt
discussed such questions and many more during an inter-
view with HSM.
HSM:How is healthcare management different from man-
agement in business?
MARTIN:Our general philosophy is that there is nothing
unique about healthcare management.Management is man-
agement,whether it's in the public sector,in the healthcare
field,or in industry.
MITTELSTAEDT:I′m quoting Sam now,but we know more
about medicine than we do about managing the health en-
terprise. | MARTIN:We know much more about what to do for the patient than we know about how to get everything ready to do it. HSM:What would you say are the major manage- ment problems in the health field today? MARTIN:I would say that the big- Samuel P.Martin,M.D. gest problem in the healthcare area today is a lack of incentivesbuilt into the system that would demand thekind of scrutiny,the kind of intensity of man-agement,that is seen in the rest of the free-market economy. MITTELSTAEDT:I would answer the questiondifferently,but the meaning is exactly the same.The one symptom that manifests itself to man-agers as the overwhelming management prob-lem right now is control of costs.It's the singlemost important concern the manager has.We've gotten beyond the stage of worrying pri-marily about access and we've gotten beyondthe stage of worrying primarily about quality ofcare.Right now,for this decade,we're sing-ularly concerned with control of costs.The ma-jor reason cost control is a big problem is,asSam indicated,the lack of adequate incentives. HSM:Why has the healthcare system devel-oped with this lack of incentives?How has itcome about and what can be done about it? MARTIN:I think I'll answer that,and we'll getBob's opinion too.Healthcare is a very inter-esting phenomenon.I don't understand wh

FAQs

What does the interview identify as the key management problem in the health field?

The interview highlights a lack of built-in incentives that leads managers to focus primarily on controlling costs.

How does the interview describe healthcare management compared with management in business?

It argues there is nothing uniquely different about healthcare management, since management is management across sectors, even though healthcare knowledge about managing the enterprise differs from medical knowledge.

Why does the healthcare system lack adequate incentives, and what causes the issue?

The discussion suggests healthcare has been sheltered from real-world management issues and moved away from free-market approaches, resulting in fragmented accountability and physicians controlling utilization and service expenditures.

Oct 13, 2026

Upload by Jiven