Management of patient education in US hospitals: evolution of a concept.

While patient education has been an integral part of health care for centuries, the management of this process is a relatively new concept for US hospitals. Beginning in the late 1960s, documentation of patient education coordinator positions, policies, committee mandates, and other management structures began to appear. National surveys and projects documented the growth of these structures and provided some evidence that their existence positively impacted the number of programs and their effectiveness. Financial pressures on hospitals including the advent of the prospective pricing system, other actions by government and business to control health care costs, and changes in technology have resulted in budget cuts, staff reductions, and reorganizations that have posed new challenges for the development of patient education management. This paper discusses these developments and their impact on management of patient education programs in hospitals.