Rationalizing the delivery of eye care--part I

The often proclaimed health care crisis has led to a variety of efforts to reorganize and rationalize the existing health care system. One such effort has been to develop a conceptual model for the delivery of personal health services in which the region is the fundamental planning unit and levels of care form its organizational framework. Three levels of care are defined--primary, secondary, and tertiary--each level being based on a combination of the frequency with which a service is needed and its professional and technical sophistication. The regionalization of health services would serve to "achieve a balance between the public's request for decentralized resources and the centralization required so that they may be used efficiently."