ABSTRACT
Health administration in the United States has had a long and honorable concern with the organization and reorganization of health agencies to meet changing needs and conditions. A landmark in the birth of modern public administration, interestingly, was the first major study conducted in 1906 by the New York City Bureau of Municipal Research on the organization and administration of the New York City Department of Health. At various times and places, either within the agency or by the organization of special governmental districts, tuberculosis control, public hospitals, mental health, and medical services to the indigent achieved organizational and fiscal identities of their own. Quite aside from the problems of political geography and program geography, the established boundaries of official health agencies have been brought into question by the related factors of size and status. The emergence of massive programs oriented to specific clienteles, notably the War on Poverty, raises still another issue for health administrators, among others.
