title: The psychiatric patient as consumer.
abstract: The rocketing cost of good standard modern medicine and the constant strengthening of the consumers' voice are powerful factors behind the world-wide reorganization of medical services with the aim of improving cost-efficiency, quality and accessibility. The assumption of this article is that financial waste, redundancy and obsolence of medical systems are related to the non-participation of patients in the evaluation of the services they consume. These problems are demonstrated and analysed using examples from psychiatry, where the patients and their families constitute a relatively silent consumer group.
authors.affiliation: Ness-Ziona Mental Health Center, Israel.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mester
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gonen
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006295:Health Resources / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000191:economics