Hospitals That Treat Just for a Buck Everyday people flood the rooms of hospitals all across the world for many different reasons, but without them consciously knowing they may be getting taken advantage of. I understand that medical care and hospitals are a necessity but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t look at them just like you would any other business offering a service. Some people enter a hospital for minor treatment, others may get admitted and never leave, the harsh reality of hospitals to me are scary enough. So why should you have to worry if someone is benefiting even more from our pain and sickness. I believe that a hospital that is non-profit would be anyone’s best chance of getting quality medical care. It wasn’t until I decided to major in health care administration that I was subjected to the different types of ownership there can be for health institutions. Although, there isn’t a lot of information on the differences between non-profit and for-profit hospitals, most of the research I have found and conducted leads me to believe a hospital that isn’t all about a dollar has better medical practices and as a patient the benefits may be greater. Some specific reasons for this conclusion include an interview I conducted of a former employee from both types of hospitals and studies that show higher mortality rates in for-profit hospitals. Some other reasons would be administrators getting the highest wage possible, amount of uncompensated care, learning the primary goal of non-profits, and the simple fact that some of the most profitable hospitals don’t want to answer any financial questions. Just like other situations in life, it just seems like the person who doesn’t want to answer questions or can’t justify their actions tend to be guilty, conniving, and always end up having something to hide. To learn more about the differences between non-profit and for-profit hospitals I asked a former employee of both institutions a number of questions. First, you must understand that this person started off as a nurse and then moved on to the administrative side of things. They now work for a major non-profit hospital and seemed to honestly be completely unbiased during the discussion of their experiences in the two different types of hospitals. First, Becky wanted me to understand that giving the hospitals the labels of “non-profit” and “for-profit” is something that can be tricky because these names can be deceiving. Although, a hospital or institution may be called non-profit doesn’t mean that they don’t make money. Non-profit organizations are also exempted from taxes and catch scrutiny for this from their counterparts that feel they don’t do enough to deserve it. Even though they get this special exemption they are still expected to put their profits back into the hospital, technology, services that are provided, and their own community as well as the under privileged. On the other hand a hospital that is for-profit has to worry about turning a profit for all the people who hold stake in that organization. So, even though both make a substantial amount of money, it seems as if non-profits only have their employees and patients to consider in their spending. For-profits are trying to get the maximum wage so that the people who invested in the organization or hospital can benefit. After learning a bit of the so called facts, one can’t help but to wonder at what cost does for-profit hospitals give up just to make a buck. Overall, even studying how non-profits work from the business side of things, differences between the two types of ownerships start to come even more apparent. Peter F. Drucker a famous business consultant and author, describes a non-profit organization as a “human change agent” (Drucker, Chapter 3). By this he meant that their mission and sole goal should be to help people learn, grow, and be able to adapt to anyone’s needs. Customers, patients, or visitors should be