HOSPITAL ORGANIZATION
The hospital's board of trustees represents the public's interest and bears legal and moral
responsibility for all activities that occur within the institution. The trustees set
hospital policy and see to the provision and safeguarding of hospital assets. The administrator, the chief of the medical staff, and the chiefs of the various medical services are directly responsible to the trustees, who also approve the medical staff bylaws, the rules that govern the behavior of staff
physicians. Hospital administration is concerned with such matters as finances, plant management, and labor policies.
The medical staff is usually subdivided into inpatient departments such as medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics. Each department has a chief of service, and all medical services are overseen by a chief of staff, who may be appointed by the trustees or elected by the medical staff. Teaching hospitals maintain a paid staff of physicians, and they employ and train the majority of U.S. residents and interns. Physicians are not usually hired by nonteaching institutions but instead are granted the privilege of practicing in a hospital once their professional qualifications are approved.
In addition to the standard medical and nursing services, a number of special services have become vital to patient care. Dietetics, the planning of meals based on the knowledge of special dietary requirements for every type of illness, is a major department within a hospital. Special alcoholism and drug units treat the physical and psychological aspects of addiction. Physical therapy is essential in the rehabilitation of many patients. Emergency medicine has become a specialty, with established procedures for keeping alive victims of poisoning, drug abuse, heart attacks, and severe injuries from accidents, disasters, or violence. In addition, the emergency rooms of many hospitals now provide basic medical care for large numbers of people who use this service, usually, because they do not have access to a physician.