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ORGANIZATION OF A COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL CARE PROGRAM IN A CHRONIC DISEASE HOSPITAL
Author(s) -
Mark Herbert
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1968.tb02761.x
Subject(s) - medicine , service (business) , rehabilitation , disease , medical care , unit (ring theory) , patient care , medical emergency , chronic disease , nursing , family medicine , physical therapy , pathology , mathematics education , economy , mathematics , economics
A bstract A program is described for the comprehensive care of patients on the medical service in an 1800‐bed municipal chronic disease hospital. Patients with neoplastic disease or those who need merely custodial care are not considered candidates for admission. Every new patient first stays in the admitting section for about three weeks to undergo thorough evaluation of his needs and rehabilitation potential. He is then transferred to one of the four comprehensive care units on the medical service. This unit system facilitates the assignment of a personal physician to each patient. The staff is organized into teams to provide the non‐medical as well as the medical services required during the patient's entire stay in the hospital. Interdisciplinary teaching conferences encourage efficiency on the part of all staff members. Because the chief goal of the program is the provision of comprehensive care for patients with multiple problems, the staff physicians can no longer be concerned with only a single disease or organ system. They must cope with a wide range of medical problems and also with the patient's reactions to his disease and the interrelationships between the patient, the family and the community. Such a program provides a new, flexible approach to services, teaching and research in the care of the chronically ill.