Abstract
Contemporary healthcare services are increasingly organized into complex systems that ideally work together to deliver healthcare. What is currently thought of as healthcare was historically based more on a one-at-a-time transaction related to illness, diagnosis and treatment, with the preventive and population-based components of health being provided by public health. A foundation of this chapter is that in order to achieve maximal health, physicians and a healthcare workforce who understand and can lead in the improvement of healthcare systems are needed. Three essential components are required: the ability to analyze how systems work and don’t work for the desired aim, the ability to partner well with patients and consumers so that strengths and weaknesses of the status quo can be identified and addressed, and the ability to join with public health to improve total health so that the numbers of years lived well is maximized across populations. This chapter begins with definitions of systems and relates the significance of systems as essential to advancing and improving modern healthcare. In order to improve systems or make systems changes, one has to understand what kinds of roles components of the systems have in designing and executing systems improvement interventions. The following sections describe various components or levels of systems and provide examples of opportunities to advance improvement. The final section is a summary and serves to tie the activity together.
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Everett, A., Feldman, J.M. (2024). Systems of Care. In: Tasman, A., et al. Tasman’s Psychiatry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42825-9_155-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42825-9_155-1
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