Leadership issues: health care in the year 2004

The intent of this article is to develop a plausible scenario for health care in the year 2004. We hope to engage the reader in a process that will help discern the exogenous forces that are currently impacting the way that health care organizations do business. By identifying these forces, we can track their development and learn to adapt and change proactively as may be necessary. We also discuss the current and projected trends that are shaping health care delivery. Our theme is that the future of health care is continually being reinvented and that the potential for dealing effectively with the dramatic change that the future is bringing already exists in most health care organizations. The future is only waiting to be reinvented.