Nature and Issues of Hospital Management

병원관리학의 본질과 과제

Hospital Management, as a branch of science, is now in a formative period in Korea. Proper understanding on the scienctific nature and issues of the subject, therefore, is important for both its developement and education of the students. As an academic subject, Hospital Management can be pointed out to have three characteristics, Firstly, when looking it in teleological viewpoint, it is a branch of health science. Ultimate goal of the hospital lies in promoting and keeping health of the people residing in the catchment area in which it places, Secondly, in terms of its contents, Hospital Management can be divided into tow subsubjects ; hospital administrative management and hospital business management. The former stands at the point of looking the hospital as the object of goverment administration, while the latter as the subject of organizational operation. Flanlly, Hospital Management, in its academic appoach, is a science that adopts management theories, what is called, traditional and/or modern. For the settlement and development of the Hospital Management, four major issues were suggested for discussion now and in the future. They include ; (1) boundary between Hospital Management and its related academic fields (2) subdivision of the subject and its contents, (3) activation of study, theortical and empirical, and (4) distinction of the level of lecture among lecfnical, four-year and gradudate courses.