Restructuring public hospitals to meet marketplace demands.

Legal and political limitations often prevent public hospitals from offering the full range of services and programs that might best serve their communities and allow them to compete successfully with nongovernmental facilities. Faced with such limitations, a growing number of public hospitals are being restructured as nongovernmental entities. Rather than selling these facilities outright, some cities, counties, and hospital districts are "privatizing" their public hospitals, which enables both the municipality and the hospital to take advantage of potential benefits while ensuring community access to appropriate, high-quality healthcare.