FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE OF A NEW HILL-BURTON HOSPITAL.

The article reports the findings of a pilot study, which was conducted with the view of refining the concept of hospital acceptance. The pilot study had three objectives in mind. These were: to construct an index of hospital acceptance, to discover variables which might be related to the index of acceptance and to state hypotheses which would be tested subsequently through more intensive study. Hospital acceptance was conceptualized as consisting of a complex of general attitudes toward a specific hospital. Thus, the schedule was designed to elicit nine general attitudes toward the county hospital. When these attitudes were placed on a continuum they ranged from thinking about the hospital as a part of the community at one end of the continuum to willingness to support the hospital through use, contributions, etc., at the other end of the continuum. The study was conducted in a northeast Mississippi county, which is served by a modern 40-bed Hill-Burton hospital. This hospital has operated since 1950, and is fairly typical of the new hospitals in Mississippi from the standpoint of its physical plant and services offered.