Hospital personnel management in the early 1990s: a follow-up analysis.

Our article in the July-August 1986 issue of Hospital & Health Services Administration described the evolution of hospital personnel management from the pre-1965 to the post-1985 period by examining four different models and predicted trends for the late 1980s (Robbins and Rakich 1986). This article will provide an update and look at emerging trends in hospital personnel management for the early 1990s. A very brief recapitulation of the salient points made in 1986, including the contemporary Matrix Model of hospital personnel management, is presented, and the model's attributes are reassessed. This is followed by an analysis, by category, of the initial predictions of trends, the assessment of whether those trends evolved as anticipated, and expectations for the early 1990s. Finally, new trends, previously unforeseen, are presented.

The Amherst study of hospital marketing practices.

The study findings identify two major area of concern related to marketing and the direction the field is taking. First, health care marketing--though much discussed and expensive--is still in a stage of immaturity. As practiced in hospitals today, marketing is frequently synonymous with advertising. Second, marketing in health care will not ultimately be a "clone" of marketing practices in industry and retailing. Though hospitals are looking to those areas for knowledge and expertise, the unique character of the product will cause health care marketing to evolve into a practice uniquely different from that in other industries.

Hospital personnel management in the late 1980s: a direction for the future.

Personnel management in hospitals is appreciably different today than twenty years ago, not only in terms of role and process, but also in terms of an approach and philosophy toward human resources. This change is largely a result of external forces, including legislation affecting manpower acquisition and retention, union activism, federal intrusions health services delivery, and constituent and client assertiveness in the purchase of healthcare services. The authors present four models of hospital personnel administration and offer reasons for their evolution. In each, personnel administration's approach, role and process, and the organization's philosophy concerning employees are described. One model, the human resource model, describes most hospitals today. However, a new model reflecting the risk-survival realities of the present turbulent health services environment is emerging. The matrix model of the future has as its base the human resources perspective, modified and limited by productivity improvement considerations. On top of this base is the participative-competitive organizational philosophy inherent in the increasingly risk-survival environment. Attributes of the matrix model are described; future trends and implications for hospitals are presented.