The fields of public relations and marketing are experiencing interdisciplinary assimilation, especially in the health care industry and specifically in hospitals. With the recognition of this basic trend many questions have been raised by public relations practitioners, marketers, and health care administrators dealing with present and anticipated functions of these public relations/marketing departments.To survey the status of public relations and marketing in Indiana hospitals the study's research question became: What is the status of the functions of public relations and marketing in Indiana hospitals?A questionnaire was the basic research tool in this study of the status of hospital marketing and public relations. The questionnaire included three sections: 1) hospital demographics; 2) identification of public relations and marketing functions performed; and 3) professional staff demographics. This study's universe was defined as healthcare marketing/public relations professionals in the State of Indiana and therefore drew its sample from the Indiana Society for Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing membership list, 1993.The researcher's survey findings led her to the conclusion that because marketing is such a new and powerful force in Indiana's hospital industry, it is swiftly integrating its functions into traditional hospital public relations programs and even rising to a position of primacy over traditional public relations programs. / Department of Journalism