The DRG era: a major opportunity for increased pastoral care impact or a crisis for survival?

Notes how the Diagnostic Related Group (DRG) system, now being utilized by a growing number of hospitals, may provide chaplains with ways of demonstrating their worth as team members in total health care. Claims that pastoral care ought to be a major clinical service in a hospital and that chaplains therefore need to provide objective evidence of their contribution to the well-being of patients, as do other major clinical areas. Suggests specific ways for chaplains to establish such data, including the use of objective measures of the spiritual conditions of patients. Offers examples of accountability procedures and notes that such meticulous chaplain accountability along with follow-up work with patients could lead to expansions of services and new roles in the chaplaincy fields.