A new multiperspective emphasis on the public hospital governance

ABSTRACT

Research question/issue: Governments play a significant role in healthcare funding and regulation in all economically advanced nations. In some countries, healthcare delivery is the responsibility of the federal and state governments as they own and operate hospitals. Governance of public hospitals ought to fulfill the expectations of different stakeholders. This paper seeks to explore different perspectives or paradigms of governance, and submerge them to propose a multiperspective governance framework for public hospitals in a rapidly changing healthcare sector.

Methodology: A literature search was conducted to find the articles and books that provided information related to public hospital governance.

Research findings/insights: This paper reveals an emerging framework of public hospital governance based on modified traditional corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, principles of public enterprises governance, stakeholder theory of corporate governance, and nonprofit hospital governance.

Theoretical/academic implications: This paper makes two important contributions. First, it suggests that traditional corporate governance may not be a good fit for public hospitals. Second, the paper outlines the components of a multiperspective public hospital governance framework.

Practitioner/policy implications: This paper could potentially lead hospital managers and health policymakers to consider and adopt a new governance framework for public hospitals due to the fact that costs of and the demand for healthcare continue to rise while the fiscal resources are limited.

KEYWORDS:

• Public hospitals
• corporate governance
• hospital governance
• corporate social responsibility
• public hospital governance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Sunil K. Dixit is a doctoral candidate at the Victoria Institute of Strategic Economic Studies (VISES), Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. He is a management and accounting professional with an experience of more than 30 years. He is an adjunct faculty member of Trident University International, California and Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma.