ABSTRACT
The organization of hospitals, involving as it does the numerous service departments and the many types of personnel, poses especially difficult problems for maintaining safety accountability. Each occupation, department, or service tends to view its hazard/safety concerns as unique, and some of them are. There is another set of conditions that perhaps hinders effective organizational accountability: the goals of hospital administrators are sometimes in competition with the goals of health practitioners. Hospitals are moving increasingly toward an industrial production model in order to contain costs. This movement has been hastened as a consequence of the DRG legislation. To begin with, the hospital personnel can be sources of hazard. Therefore, efforts should be continued to assure that they are performing safely and reliably. Orientation programs for new workers and educational programs to upgrade skills should be strengthened to meet the constantly changing safety needs.
