In many health care institutions (eg, hospitals), employees' health and satisfaction are not the main concern. However, if health and productivity are affected by high sickness rates and low motivation, health and satisfaction of the employees become important. This applies especially to hospitals engaged in acute patient care. We showed that a complete reorganisation of the central O. R. resulted in employees' working satisfaction, low illness rates (- 70 %) and increased motivation. In addition, the new structure increased the efficacy (> 500 operations more per year), improved the economy (savings of 500,000 annually) and increased patient satisfaction as expected and desired.