title: A general systems approach to the patient, hospital staff, family, and community: implications for health care services.
abstract: This article concerns the application of a general systems concept to the health care system. A system consists of a set of interacting components which are interrelated and interdependent, and function as a unit. In order to identify some of the significant influences on the patient who has been hospitalized, this general systems concept has been applied to health care systems at a number of open systems levels in which he or she participates. These are the body-mind system of the patient (an organism); the patient-hospital staff system (an organization); the system relating the patient to his or her family (a group); and the patient-community system. Analyses of the strategic parts of these systems, their mutual dependencies and the processes which link them, together with their functions, have implications for both hospital-based health-care professionals and hospital administrators. These analyses are generalizable across these four levels of systems. Their implications have importance for health care services.
mesh_terms: D003153:Community Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012803:Sick Role; D012944:Social Support; D013598:Systems Theory