Hospitals, Doctors, and the Public Interest

HOSPITALS, DOCTORS, AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST. Edited by John H. Knowles. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1965. xi, 337 pp. $8.50. This unique volume deals with many social, economic, and educational problems faced by hospitals in efforts to fulfill their responsibilities to the community and the people in families who live there. The fifteen contributors, who are leaders in medical administration, education, and social welfare, consider ways in which hospitals became effective; how they manage facilities, finance patient care, prepare personnel, organize and distribute services, meet problems of maintaining quality, and conduct research. More specifically, there are enlightening discussions of such subjects as: "Government and Hospitals"; "The Teaching Hospital and the Community"; "The Hospital as a Social Instrument: Experiences at Montefiore Hospital"; "The Voice of the Consumer: Cost, Quality, and Organization of Medical Services"; and "At the Turn of the Next Century." Those who recall the 1963 Lowell Lectures on "The Hospital's Responsibility to the Community," from which this volume was derived, will wish to add this important and timely series of contributions to their working library. Furthermore, those who are engaged in community planning and constructive action can gain increased understanding from these pages whether they are so-called laymen, medical students, health and medical professional groups, those already adroit in political and social interaction, and those of other disciplines, including the priests, who are esesential members of the "health team." A study group of the World Health Organization recently carried some of the concepts further in a valuable publication on courses for health staff in higher education "Since hospitals play an important role, not only in diagnostic and curative medicine but also in prevention and rehabilitation, it is important that those responsible for their administration should also be included in the training programmes."* IRA VAUGHAN HISCOCK