Why hospitals offer health promotion: perspectives for collaborating with health promotion practitioners.

Most hospitals have expanded their services in recent years to become involved with health promotion programs and activities. A hospital might offer health promotion services to promote health and to raise the health status of its community. However, it might provide health promotion for other reasons, such as to improve the hospital's cost-effectiveness, competitive strategy, organizational legitimacy, or tax exemption. Health promotion practitioners who collaborate with a hospital for health promotion should understand the hospital's reasons for providing health promotion. Furthermore, they should understand that different reasons may lead to different priority populations, resource commitments, organizational structures, work processes, and health outcomes.