The physician manager in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

The physician manager feels hassled. There are increasing budgetary restraints, concerns over the appropriateness of resource utilization, and steadily increasing worry over governmental bureaucracy. In addition, there are concerns over patient satisfaction and increasing dissatisfaction by health care personnel. For all of this, the physician manager feels responsible. Sound familiar? Except that this physician manager is in one of the countries behind what formerly was called the "Iron Curtain," in Central and Eastern Europe or in one of the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union. Despite the striking political, economic, social, and organizational issues currently present, many of the problems faced by the physician manager in Central and Eastern Europe and in the New Independent States are remarkably similar to those encountered in the United States and Western Europe.