Cooperation to reduce hospital bills by medical and administrative staffs.

Abstract

To the Editor: —A comparison of hospital bills for the care of the same disease in 1939 and 1952 will make it obvious that hospitalization is expensive and becoming more so. While great advances have been made in medical and hospital care, there is growing concern that the patient's ability to pay for it is not keeping the pace. Are there ways to ease the burden of cost without adversely influencing the standard of care that must be maintained in the interest of the patient? If there are, the challenge should be accepted and shared by the entire hospital staff, administrative and medical alike. Serious consideration has been given to the solution of this problem and many constructive steps have been taken to reduce costs. Individual hospitals studying their various procedures have reported that hospital operation may be made more efficient through cooperative medical staff action. Important contributions to this