The Business of Healthcare
Cover of The Business of Healthcare
The Book

The Business of Healthcare

Essential Lessons for Emerging Healthcare Leaders

Drawing on nearly fifty years as a physician, healthcare attorney, executive, and professor, Edward Kroger distills what healthcare leaders need to know into 34 lessons. His premise is simple: no one can master the medicine, the law, and the business of an industry that consumes one in five dollars spent in the United States, but the essential lessons of running it well are not complicated, and any sufficiently interested professional can learn them.

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Paperback, 559 pages · Kindle edition · First edition, 2026

About the book

A practical primer, not an academic textbook

Every lesson closes with a summary, Executive Takeaways, and a short list of further reading. More than one hundred examples show the concepts in action, and four appendices map the healthcare ecosystem, define its terms and acronyms, chart the three paths into healthcare leadership, and point the way to deeper study. The writing is plain language, without footnotes, built for people who read on a working professional's schedule.

It was written for physicians, nurses, and allied health practitioners stepping into leadership; administrators preparing to advance; professionals entering healthcare from other industries; students of healthcare management; and the policymakers and citizens who want to understand why American healthcare works the way it does.

Table of contents

Thirty-four lessons in eight parts

The book opens with a preface and two short notes on the word "healthcare" and on the healthcare ecosystem, then proceeds through the parts below.

Part I: The Challenge

  • Lesson 1The Challenges Facing U.S. Healthcare
  • Lesson 2The Economics of Healthcare
  • Lesson 3Value

Part II: Leading Self and Teams

  • Lesson 4Leading Self
  • Lesson 5From Peer to Leader
  • Lesson 6Leading Teams

Part III: The Quality Agenda

  • Lesson 7Zero Harm and High-Reliability Organizations
  • Lesson 8Patient-Centered Care
  • Lesson 9Evidence-Based Care
  • Lesson 10Population Health and Social Determinants of Health
  • Lesson 11Quality Improvement Projects and Tools
  • Lesson 12Lean Six Sigma and Root Cause Analysis

Part IV: The Cost Agenda

  • Lesson 13Where the Money Comes From
  • Lesson 14Financial Accounting
  • Lesson 15Managerial Accounting
  • Lesson 16Finance
  • Lesson 17Organizational Planning and Budgeting

Part V: Operations and Execution

  • Lesson 18Operations and Supply Chain Management
  • Lesson 19Care Coordination, Access, and Service Design
  • Lesson 20Emergency Preparedness and Incident Command
  • Lesson 21Project Management
  • Lesson 22Healthcare Information
  • Lesson 23Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Part VI: Growth and Change

  • Lesson 24Marketing
  • Lesson 25Innovation
  • Lesson 26Human Resources and Culture
  • Lesson 27Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining

Part VII: Constraints

  • Lesson 28Ethics
  • Lesson 29Health Law
  • Lesson 30Professional Liability
  • Lesson 31Healthcare Policy

Part VIII: Leading the Enterprise

  • Lesson 32Strategy
  • Lesson 33Hospital Governance and the Medical Staff
  • Lesson 34Leading Organizations

Conclusion and Appendices

  • ConclusionA tour back through the lessons
  • Appendix AThe Healthcare Ecosystem
  • Appendix BGlossary of Terms and Acronyms
  • Appendix CBuilding Your Career in Healthcare Leadership
  • Appendix DFurther Reading

Read the preface and Lesson 1 (PDF)

Editions

Available on Amazon

Paperback

6 × 9 inches · 559 pages · black and white on white paper

ISBN 979-8-9820498-1-0

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Kindle

Reflowable Kindle edition for Kindle devices and the free Kindle app on phone, tablet, and computer.

Also readable with Kindle Unlimited where offered.

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For courses and organizations

Adopting the book for a course, a leadership program, or a board? Teaching materials for faculty are in preparation, and bulk copies can be arranged.

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Updates and corrections

Healthcare changes continuously

This page carries corrections and updates to the first edition, along with materials published after the book went to press. No corrections have been issued for the first edition as of October 2026.

Found an error, or a number that has moved on? Let Edward know — reported errors are listed here and fixed in the next printing.