[Patients as customers: risks and opportunities of a modified perception of in-hospital patients]

[Hospital Profits: Ethical Aspects at the Interface Between Medicine and Economics]

Hospital profits and economization trends are increasingly becoming the focus of discussions on improving health care systems. Profit-based approaches to generate hospital returns have an ethical dimension, because patient well-being must remain the primary concern. A needs-oriented economic approach without the dominance of primary profit targets should become an overarching framework for the hospital sector.