ABSTRACT
Beyond the industrialization phase of American healthcare, the 21st century opens up as a new perspective for healthcare that incorporates the remaining elements of the 20th century, the dynamics of industrialized healthcare, and the many new aspects of healthcare that appear as new technology and new delivery methods appear. Organizational, process, and cultural changes shape healthcare organizations in the 21st century as they adapt to the new environment in which patient-customers assume a dominant and more active role in the design, delivery, and evaluation of services. Significant new dynamics in the healthcare landscape shift more of the costs of healthcare to the patient, and new technology transformations open new options for delivering care. As patients struggle to manage the costs of care, they constantly challenge the healthcare delivery system to offer better services at less cost. New technological developments challenge 21st century healthcare by offering patient-customers the ability to obtain care through different delivery processes for less than the traditional methods.
