ABSTRACT
Nonprovider, nongovernment, health care organizational culture has a long history from the first hospital in America to today’s countless different and interdependent institutions. However, U.S. health care organizations in general are directly impacted by the Flexner Report and the resulting biomedical, disease-focused, approach to health care access and delivery. Over the past 110 years, health care organizations in America have evolved to keep up with physician and nursing cultures, the expectations of health care consumers, and Medicare/Medicaid and third party insurers’ managed care policies. Consequently, hospitals, changed from being primarily physician-centered, to business-focused organizations. These hospitals also transformed to stay current with both technological advances and associated specialization. However, in order for 21st century health care organizations to compete for consumers and revenue, they needed to spend money on marketing and advertising efforts to persuade providers and/or consumers to choose their institution, products, and/or services. While those promotional efforts helped increase awareness of the various organizations it also increased their costs to U.S. consumers/taxpayers.
