The fifth year, 1967: Decentralization into three county units

The two outstanding trends in 1966 had been: (a) the organizational development of the hospital, resulting from a flexible social structure and evolution toward a largely decentralized hospital; and (b) the increasing quantity and quality of trained staff. These trends continued, resulting in three county units for both patients and staff. The total separation of the hospital into three semi-autonomous units based on their geographical identity was not fully realized. Our total patient population of 400 patients did not make it practicable to have three separate admission units with their inevitable drain on staff. The same applied to the special unit for the mentally retarded. So we ended up with a mixture of geographical and functional hospital units.