The increasing fragmentation and rising costs of medical care highlight the need for new approaches, especially the need for alternatives for the delivery of a full range of services at the local level. This book is the first to offer a model for a comprehensive community-based health practice that can compete effectively in the health care market. In their analysis of a health center affiliated with New York Medical College, the authors present systematic profiles of every aspect of operation, together with anecdotal accounts contributed by physicians, nursing staff, patients, and those responsible for third-party payment.

The authors begin with an overview of the organization, its philosophy, and guiding concepts. In separate chapters they describe policies and procedures for each functional area, from patient care and staff functions to facility management and finance. Four chapters are devoted to anecdotal narratives that give a picture of the center's operation from the vantage point of those most closely involved in the delivery of medical services. The final chapter discusses the potential role of local comprehensive practice centers in solving our nation's health care dilemmas and reflects on the policy initiatives that will be required to implement such a solution. This book will be of interest to policy-makers, consumer advocacy groups, and those in the health care field, as well as to scholars and researchers in medical education, the social sciences, and public administration.

"The Supply of ConceptS" achieves a major breakthrough in the general theory of systems. It unfolds a theory of everything that steps beyond Physics' theory of the same name. The author unites all knowledge by including not only the natural but also the philosophical and theological universes of discourse. The general systems model presented here resembles an organizational flow chart that represents conceptual positions within any type of system and shows how the parts are connected hierarchically for communication and control. Analyzing many types of systems in various branches of learned discourse, the model demonstrates how any system type manages to maintain itself true to type. The concepts thus generated form a network that serves as a storehouse for the supply of concepts in learned discourse. Partial to the use of analogies, Irving Silverman presents his thesis in an easy-to-read style, explaining a way of thinking that he has found useful. This book will be of particular interest to the specialist in systems theory, philosophy, linguistics, and the social sciences.

Irving Silverman applies his general systems model to 22 system types and presents rationales for these analyses. He provides the reader with a method, and a way to apply that method; a theory of knowledge derived from the method; and a practical outlook based on a comprehensive approach. Chapters include: Minding the Storehouse; Standing Together; The Cognitive Contract; The Ecological Contract; The Social Contract; The Semantic Terrain.