Regarding the letter titled “Reese’s decline” (Voice, Dec. 3):
I was the corporate programming manager for a multiple hospital/medical school group that was recently purchased by the Columbia Group, and I am well aware of the decisions involved in day-to-day operations. As I see it, the problem with hospital-based health care is that the people making the decisions have never been qualified for the job.
In the past, hospitals were run by physicians (usually through administrators, but with the decisions always made by the doctors). Doctors are qualified to render medical care but are not qualified to run, or even understand, the business end that is a necessary part of a hospital.
Recently, this has changed. Hospitals are now run by businessmen. While they know about accounting and profit-loss ratios, they are not qualified to make medical decisions, nor are they qualified to understand them.
Throughout all of these changes, the government has been continually imposing a series of draconian and contradictory rules and procedures upon both groups. As we all know, government is neither qualified to make medical or business decisions.
How do we solve this problem? I have no idea.
