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HOW GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION ARE ADAPTING TO THE INCREASING DEMAND IN THE HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CARE PROFESSION RAYMOND J. ZIEGLER The Cleveland State University In 1950 there were 8,600 hospital administrators, in 1960, 12,000, and the figure projected for employment in 1970 is 18,651 [2, p. 219]. Another statistic from the same source indicates a 1970 employment projection of 3.6 million for selected health occupations. Therefore, one could draw the conclusion that there are many more openings in the field of hospital and medical care profession than in the field of hospital administration per se. In November 1968, there were thirty-two graduate courses in hospital administration (some have expanded into the hospital and medical care field) offered by the universities in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Twenty-two of these programs were members of the Association of University Programs in Hospital Administration and duly accredited by the Accrediting Commission on Graduate Education for Hospital Administration. According to John D. Thompson and Gary L. Filerman, [3] "if there is one characteristic of these programs, in fact, it is that they are a paradoxical mixture of diversity and uniformity." Their diversity is to some extent the result of their being located in different schools or departments of various universities: Schools of Public Health, Graduate Schools of Business or Public Administration, medical schools, and other graduate schools. Some of the trends and developments in this educational field, for example, the broadening of the subject matter base from hospital administration to medical care, were dependent initially on the school in which the program was located. Programs located in schools of public health which were already teaching medical care were able to add this subject to the course in hospital administration. Programs in medical schools or in schools of business or general graduate schools solved the problem in one of two ways: either by adding a faculty member with special competence in this area, or by assigning a member of the existing faculty the task of preparing a course or series of courses in medical care. Those courses located in the school of public health obviously require a considerable number of public health courses. A sample of six public health programs, with the exception of Yale, required no business courses. (Yale did require a course in data processing and one in interpersonal and organizational behavior.) Conversely, a sample of nine other programs (Michigan excepted, an organizational change was being effected from the Graduate School of Business Administration to the School of Public

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Health) did not require any specific courses in public health. Several administrators commented that student selectivity and recruitment, undergraduate preparation of students, and the orientation of the faculty are more significant than where the graduate program is located. Apparently one should not get into the argument about where the program should be located instead of what to teach. However, educationally, the precise relationship between the teaching of medical care and hospital administration is not yet clear. Roemer has suggested that "the issue taking shape . . . is the prospect of blending the educational programs in these two fields" [1]. It is interesting that one program alone devoted as much time to medical care in 1966 as did fifteen programs in 1958. This 1966 survey by Dr. Milton I. Roemer clearly indicates American schools of hospital administration are giving much more attention to instruction in the broad problems of medical care organization. REFERENCES
1. Roemer, Milton I , M.D., "Teaching of Medical Care Administration: Emerging Issues," Medical Care, Volume 1 (1966). 2. Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1966, 1970 Labor Force Projection (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966). 3. "Trends and Developments in Education for Hospital Administration," Hospital Administration, Volume 12, Number 4 (Fall 1967).

SEVENTH ANNUAL WORKSHOP IN PSYCHODRAMA

offered by the University of Maine Summer Session and the Department of Psychology, for growth as a person and as a leader of groups, with Doris Twitchell Allen, Ph.D., Director. July 10-16, 1971. For further information, write: University of Maine Summer Session, 14 Merrill Hall, Orono, Maine 04473.

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