Hospital management by product lines.

Over the last decennium many reforms of the reimbursement systems have taken place to improve the economic performance of health service organizations. These environmental changes have stimulated many hospital managers to introduce types of internal management control. Consequently budgeting is a very well known management tool. Less known in Europe is product-line management. The main purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of product-line management. Attention is paid to ways product lines can be defined in hospitals and which elements the implementation of product-line management envelope. Emphasis is laid on the consequences for the organizational structure and the cost information system. Finally, we deal with the advantages and disadvantages of product-line management.