The organization of health care
Article Abstract:
The US health care system may emphasize specialized, technologically advanced, curative medicine at the expense of basic primary care services. The health care system in the US epitomizes the dispersed mode of health care provision. The boundaries between primary, secondary, and tertiary medical care are transparent. Patients can gain access to services at any level of the system. Physicians' roles are ill-defined and the numbers of specialists far exceeds the numbers of generalists. Hospitals, too, emphasize secondary and tertiary medicine through the provision of technologically advanced, specialized care. The lack of prominence afforded to primary care is contrary to most health needs of the public and may jeopardize the continuity, coordination, and comprehensiveness of medical care. The dispersed mode of health care was influenced by two forces: the biomedical model which emphasized the scientific method and the professional model which gave physicians the latitude to manage health care resources.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1995
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Can health care teams improve primary care practice?
Article Abstract:
Individuals coming from different disciplines coming together to care for patients are generally called teams and they need to earn true team status by demonstrating teamwork. A research on patient care teams suggests that teams with greater cohesiveness are associated with better clinical outcome measures.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 2004
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