Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Chapter 1 Introduction -- Health and Health Care -- What Is Health? -- Determinants of Health -- Health Care as a Determinant of Health -- Health Care Systems -- Components of Health Care Systems -- Organization of Health Care Services -- Health Care System Management -- Health Care System Performance -- U.S. Health Care System -- Components of the Health Care System -- Organization of Health Care Services -- Types of Health Services -- Health Care System Management -- The Population Served -- Health Care System Performance -- Future of the U.S. Health Care System -- History of Change -- The Present Situation -- Future Directions -- Chapter 2 Health Care Workforce -- Overview -- Physicians -- Some Historical Background -- Licensure -- Physician Supply -- Private Medical Practice -- Patterns of Practice -- Medical Specialization -- Medical Education -- Physician Workforce Projections -- New Entrants and Choice of Medical Specialty -- Nursing -- Some Historical Background -- Definition -- Categories of Nurses and Nursing Education -- From Nursing Shortage to Nursing Oversupply, and Back Again -- Nurses in Expanded Roles -- Physician Assistants -- Health Care Workforce Outside the Hospital and Physician Office -- Conclusions -- Chapter 3 Hospitals and Other Health Care Institutions -- Introduction -- Some Historical Background -- Primary Data Sources -- Primary Definitions -- Some Numbers -- Overall -- Teaching Hospitals -- Distribution and Relative Bed Supply -- Characteristics of Hospitalized Patients -- Hospital Structure -- Introduction -- Hospital Administration -- Medical Division -- Other Hospital Health Care Divisions -- Hospital Governance in the Private Sector -- Public General Hospitals -- The Hospital in the Present Era -- Problems -- Solutions.

Long-Term Care: The Example of Nursing Homes -- Chapter 4 Primary and Ambulatory Care -- Primary Care -- Introduction -- Functions -- Brief Historical Background -- Primary Care Workforce -- Primary Care and the Health Care Delivery System -- Ambulatory Care -- Definitions -- Utilization -- Hospital Outpatient Departments -- Hospital Emergency Services -- Hospital Ambulatory Services Outside the Walls of the Hospital -- Public Health Agency Clinics -- Neighborhood and Community Health Centers -- Industrial Health Service Units -- School Health Clinics -- Home Care and Hospice -- Conclusions -- Chapter 5 Government and the Health Care System -- Introduction -- Some Historical Background -- The Constitutional Basis of Government Authority in Health Care -- The Health Care Functions of Government -- The Legislative Branch -- The Judiciary -- The Executive Branch -- Provision of Personal Health Services -- Provision of Community Health Services -- Health Services Financing -- The Federal Government and the Provision of Health Services -- Department of Health and Human Services -- Public Health Service -- Other Federal Departments -- State Governments' Role in Health Services -- Introduction -- Health Statistics -- Licensing -- Local Governments' Role in Health Services -- Problems in Public Health -- Conclusions -- Chapter 6 Financing -- Introduction -- How Much Is Spent -- Where the Money Comes From, Within the System -- Private Health Insurance -- Out-of-Pocket Expenditures -- Government Spending -- Where the Money Goes -- How the Money Is Paid: Providers, Payers, and Payments -- Provider Payment Approaches -- Risk Transfer and Good Intentions -- Third-Party Payers -- Conclusions -- Chapter 7 Health Care System Performance -- Introduction -- Quality of Health Care -- Population Health Outcomes -- Clinical Outcomes -- Clinical Effectiveness.

Patient Safety -- A Health Care Quality Improvement Example: Nosocomial Infections -- Organizations With Major Influence on Health Care Quality -- Equity of Health Care -- Equity and the Quality of Health Care -- Equity and Access to Health Care -- Efficiency of Health Care -- A National Scorecard -- Data and Information Technology -- Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology -- A Health Information Example: National Healthcare Safety Network -- Conclusions -- Chapter 8 From Prepaid Group Medical Practice to Managed Care -- Introduction -- Group Medical Practice -- Introduction -- Prepaid Group Practice -- Health Maintenance Organizations -- From PGP to HMO -- Definitions -- HMOs, Entering the 1990s and Into the 21st Century -- Managed Care -- Prologue -- Definition -- More Questions, More Definitional Complications -- Integrated Delivery Systems -- Managed Care Today -- Some Policy Issues in Managed Care -- Why Managed Care Developed When It Did -- The Future -- Chapter 9 Health Care Reform -- Introduction -- History of Change -- National Health Insurance as Solution -- World Historical Background -- History of NHI in the United States -- Some Contemporary Approaches to NHI -- NHI by Contract, or the Personal Health Care System -- National Health Insurance in the Early 1990s -- Single-Payer System -- Clinton Health Plan -- The Present Situation -- Looking Ahead -- "Patient Choice" and the "Free Market" -- Public Health Concerns -- The Costs of Scientific and Technological Advance -- Where Do We Go From Here? -- Epilogue -- A New Era of Change? -- What Kind of Change? -- A Private System? -- A Public System Is Preferable -- Appendix I: List of Critical Reports on the U.S. Health Care Delivery System, 1927-2006 -- Appendix II: Sources of Data -- Appendix III: Glossary of Terms -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H.

I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y.