Hospitals have increasingly come under close public scrutiny in the last several years because of the constantly escalating price of health care in the United States. It has been estimated that approximately 30 per cent of a typical hospital's operational budget is devoted to purchasing consumables plus the cost of materials support. The purpose of this study is to examine and compare materials management practices of selected individual hospitals in Texas Health Services Area 5 in order to determine the extent and manner in which they utilize the materials management concept. In addition, the investigation focuses on determining if there are any relationships between the variables of type of ownership, size and the extent to which the study hospitals utilize the materials management concept.

The Taxpayer Service Division contributes to the Internal Revenue Service mission of achieving the highest possible voluntary compliance with the Federal income tax law by answering questions and helping taxpayers in their return preparation efforts. These services are provided by Taxpayer Service Representatives and Taxpayer Service Specialists (TSS's). The TSS position was established in 1975 to upgrade the quality of assistance provided. TSS duties include being able to provide assistance with problems involving complex areas of the tax law. The purpose of the study was to disclose to what extent TSS's are called on to answer tax questions related to partnerships, corporations, and Subchapter S corporations and to disclose whether they have been trained and are able to answer the inquiries.