The valuation of pastoral care by hospital administrators: a survey of selected for-profit and non-profit institutions.

This paper reports on a study of 600 hospital administrators, half of which were in non-profit institutions and half of which were in hospitals owned or managed by the Hospital Corporation of America. The project was designed to identify what differences, if any, existed between surveyed administrators in both types of institutions in their valuation of pastoral care. No significant differences were found between the two groups of administrators in the valuation of pastoral care. All administrators were found to be concerned about the quality of patient care and to value aspects of care such as pastoral care which are personal and difficult to quantify.