Cutbacks in any industry or firm stem from political decisions and can significantly alter the function, outlook, and efficiency of an organization. Along with the disruption in labor and labor relations, cutbacks also affect the quality and delivery of services. Nowhere are cutbacks felt as poignantly than in the arena of health care, when decreased staff support, medical services, and medical equipment can cause clients enormous physical and emotional hardships. The health care administrator juggles her obligations to health care workers and clients: the profession of public administration in the realm of health care has therefore entailed personal sacrifice, critical and creative thinking, and improved managerial and technical skills. Through the effective management of the changes that take place in an atmosphere of health care cutbacks, an administrator can ensure the optimal efficiency of his or her organization.
             An administrator of a large health care organization will, for example, need to mobilize training services for unskilled workers replacing the highly skilled ones whose services the institution can no longer afford. In addition to administering the severance packages and emotional needs of the discarded staff, the administrator must work with department heads to coordinate patient services during a time of hardship. Health care workers who face extended shifts and reductions in pay require special attention, and administrators must be able and willing to work with labor union representatives if necessary. Therefore, knowledge of both the legal and ethical ramifications of budget cutbacks would arm the health care administrator, providing him or her with the tools necessary to keep an organization running smoothly. Because patients' lives are at stake in the industry, the health care administrator also acts with exceptional care, caution, and decisiveness.
             Privatization of the health care industry has led to nume...