Hospital Administrator
December 29th, 2001
In
the
beginning
there was the
Hospital Adminis-
trator And He said,
“Let there be others to do
My work, that I might watch
over them”. And so He created as-
sistant administrators, each with the
power to beget others to do his work, that
he, in turn, might watch over them. And so that
they could better serve Him. He created offices. And
in each one He put a plush carpet, a desk, a secretary,
and an exotic plant. And He looked and saw that it was good.
But soon a fear grew in His heart, that all His assistants
might rise up against Him. So He created Red Tape that
one office might not know what each other was doing.
And His administration became the Tower of Babble.
And so it was when came the Great Fiscal Crisis,
and it was decreed that all unnecessary
positions would no longer be funded.
One by one, assistant Directors,
found redundant, were cut,
until there remained,
alone, the Hospital
Administrator to
do His own
work, and to
water many
exotic
plants.
By: Richard H. Greif, M.D.
New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 300,
No. 10, p. 569; March 8, 1979