Hospital planning in Virginia after P.L. 93-641

Some descriptive results from a survey of Virginia hospitals regarding their planning capacities have been presented. The results are the generation of four hypotheses about hospital planning structures and hospital-HSA relationships. No attempts to posit causality have been made. In summary, it can be stated that there is a need for subsequent research into the extent to which HSA and P.L. 93-641 have affected change in health care facilities. Future research might examine the four hypotheses as applied to hospitals. Additionally, subsequent research efforts should address the extent to which organizational change within other types of health care facilities has occurred since P.L. 93-641 was enacted. In particular, community health delivery systems, such as mental health and mental retardation programs, family planning agencies, and medical group practices, might be examined in order to determine their capacity to do planning in its relationship to the passage of this Act.