Case Study: Public Health and the Health Services Delivery System

Identify few health care organizations or systems. Review their main set of activities. Alternatively, visit a health care center. Most of the organizations are components of the health services delivery system primarily serving individual patients and clients. There are, however, more than 3,000 organizations in the United States that are included in the public health system. These organizations primarily focus on "fulfilling society's interest in ensuring conditions in which people can be healthy." Public health organizations are concerned with populations of people, while health services delivery organizations and systems are concerned with the health of individuals and how their health can be enhanced by improvements in the health-related conditions in which they live. Both groups of organizations seek to enhance and improve health, yet they seek this end in different ways and with little collaboration or cooperation between them, for the most part.

QUESTIONS

1. Why are Health Service Organizations (HSO's) /Health Systems in the personal health services and public health domains so different'/

2. What are the implications of these differences for society?

3. How can their roles be more complementary?