Hospital and healthcare executives on TV: image problems for the profession

While hospitals are central to the treatment of illness on network TV news and entertainment, hospital administrators are not. And, while hospitals are portrayed favorably as the physician's ultra-modern workshop, hospital administrators ironically are likely to be depicted as obstructive to the best care possible in that workplace. Tying these conclusions to other aspects of programming, this article suggests reasons for the hospital administrator's TV image, explores the contemporary dilemma that it poses, and points briefly toward a path for dealing with it.