Theory in Hospital Management

Hospital systems are undergoing fast and tremendous changes. The hospital
systems, structures, their organisational services, the public expectations for medical
services, the programmes etc. are changing. Correspondingly the administration of
hospital is also changing. It is no longer easy, safe or even possible for the hospital
administrator to rely on their experience alone to administer modern hospital institutions.
The modern administrator needs the use of relevant administrative theories and
appropriate techniques to successfully manage the modern complex hospital institutions.
It is becoming increasingly imperative that those who will administer the institutions
must have both adequate experience and proper administrative training in order to cope
with the changing context of hospital administration.
Importance of Theory in Hospital Management
Theory is a systematic and deductive way of thinking about reality in order to
describe and understand such reality. Theory implies facts, models or laws about a
phenomenon. In order to represent reality adequately, theory attempts to create, by
deduction arising from observations, the conditions, circumstances or principles under
which a phenomenon occurs. The theory attempts to look at pieces of knowledge, facts,
laws or models in order to make some kind of sense out of them or out of their
occurrence.
Uses of Theory in Hospital Management
The major functions of theory in hospital management include the following:
(1) Creating adequate framework for hospital management in all its facets.
(2) Helping the practitioner to view administration as a complex of simultaneously
varying factors rather than a set of fixed or specific techniques.
(3) Providing general answers, suggestions or approaches to specific administrative
situation.
(4) Allowing the practitioner to incorporate and utilise knowledge produced by several
disciplines to gather facts about administrative issues and problems.
(5) Since theory is taxonomic, it provides the administrator with a conceptual framework
for the collection and ordering of data, information and observations on
administration.
(6) Theory is explanatory, therefore it suggests to the administrator the classes of events
and the antecedent-consequent and other dynamic relationships among events.
(7) Since a theory is heuristic, it points to a problem calling for solution and leads to
suggestions that can motivate and guide research in the field.
 However, the use of theory in hospital administration is not to be considered as a
panacea for all problems of hospital. There have been some strong objections to the
application of theory in hospital management.
Critics of the use of theory argue that (a) theory restricts the administrator’s
freedom of judgement; (b) since so many theories exist, they are short-lived, and they
create problems of choice; (c) theories are too difficult; (d) theory tends to bias the
practitioner in observing a phenomena; and (e) there is the danger of an administrator
becoming irrevocably fixed to a particular theory.