Medical staff and hospital accountability--a response to Dr. Lang

In a recent issue of The Medical Staff Counselor, Dr. Howard L. Lang portrayed hospitals as usurping the role of the medical staff by instituting actions for fiscal controls in response to outside pressures. This author believes that Dr. Lang's proposal to make the medical staff more independent reflects a misunderstanding of the accountability of both hospital and medical staff, and ignores the realities of the current environment, in which increased cooperation and coordination are essential.