How are changes in surgical technology affecting the management of hospitals?

Changes in surgical technology and in the modes of delivering surgical care affect hospital management profoundly. Lack of appreciation of these changes has cost hospitals dearly over the past two decades. To plan better for the decade ahead, hospital CEOs must increase their awareness of the changes in the nature of surgical procedures and practices, the advances in surgical technology to which their individual hospital can adapt, and the newer trends in surgical department design and management practices. Awareness of these developments can serve as a springboard to predicting many of these changes to come. But every new advance must be studied individually to see how it fits into the practice patterns of a given hospital. The goal for the CEO is to have a maximally efficient, safe and productive surgical suite, satisfied patients and surgical staff, and a dependable profit center in the hospital.