Providers link health with human service.

This issue's cover story looks at a handful of hospital leaders who appear to be radically redefining their hospital's role, but who are really just returning to the basics of hospital management and the basic hospital mission of community service. These CEOs of innercity hospitals are taking a leadership role in community development programs, ranging from literacy to housing. They bring together community groups to solve problems, work to find funding for projects, and attract new business to the hospital's service area. They also provide community residents with a sense of hope and a sense of stability. But their actions have ramifications that extend beyond their communities. These leaders may also be providing other health care executives with an approach to strategic planning that will add new meaning to the term "community hospital" in the 1990s.