The Health Team Model and Medical Care Utilization

The British are coming: Some observations on health care teams in Great Britain*

“…By contrast, in the United States, the early health team movement frequently was associated with organizational models and/or educational programs and institutions (Andrus, 1975;Baldwin, M.A., 1976;Beckhard, 1972;Beloff & Korper, 1972;Mazur et al, 1979;Parker, 1972;Wise, 1970). Even the Martin Luther King Health Center was conceived in part as a model training center and almost immediately sought out the interventions of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) group (Beckhard, 1972;Rubin & Beckhard, 1972).…”

“…In the United States, unfortunately, there has been great difficulty in finding experiments which have been in place long enough, or have been sufficiently well-studied to provide the needed data. Those few papers which have appeared seem to indicate that, in sum, team care is accepted and, indeed, preferred by most clients (Baldwin et al, 1980;Friedson, 1961), leads to a health orientation rather than an illness model (Beloff & Korper, 1972;Silver, 1963), is more efficient and effective than traditional care (Bellin & Geiger, 1970;Garfield et al, 1976), and may well be more cost-effective (Bellin et al, 1969;Garfield et al, 1976;Steinhardt et al, 1975). However, these relatively isolated and poorly publicized studies have not been sufficient to convince the mainstream of American practitioners or policy makers to come out in strong support of teams as a more effective method of delivering primary care.…”

Training Interdisciplinary Student Health Teams in a Gerontological Setting

“…Although Beloff and Korper (1972) found that the client health improved when a health care team delivered primary care, the empirical evidence supporting the relative efficiency of team care is minimal. Evaluation of care given by health care teams is one of the weakest aspects of the research (Kane, 1975).…”

Strategies for developing a comprehensive health care system

“…1-3 From this review came the decision to use interprofessional health care teams as the basic health care model; these teams would be responsible and use a comprehensive total family care approach. 4 The physicians would be family practice specialists, or residents in family practice, who would work in partnership with nurse clinicians, social workers, and family health workers. The health teams would be supported by part-time consultants in the various specialities, an emergency service that would operate around the clock, complete laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy departments, and a crisis intervention unit for the treatment of acute emotional problems.…”

“…From these sessions there developed the general agreement to use the interprofessional health team model, family practice physicians for primary health care (rather than internists and pediatricians), and to emphasize the use of allied health personnel, such as nurse clinicians and family health workers. 4 The immediate health needs in South Dade County were so great that it was decided to establish a temporary facility to begin the program as soon as possible, while planning for a permanent center was still underway. Eight, air-conditioned double-trailers, each measuring 24 feet by 60 feet, were designed and obtained; they were connected by a covered boardwalk so as to provide the temporary housing needed.…”