Hospitals, nursing, and medicine: the years ahead

Integrated approaches to the delivery of patient care have the potential to do several things to alleviate potential problems resulting from the five changes discussed earlier. They bring physicians into a more active role with the largest group of employees in the hospital (nurses); giving them the opportunity to acquire a better appreciation of the objectives, goals, and constraints of other providers and of the institution as a whole. When nurses and other employees begin to appreciate the constraints placed on physicians by federal regulations and competition, mutual understandings are fostered. They lay a more solid foundation for good professional relationships between hospitals and IPAs and between hospital-based physicians and independent practitioners. They encourage the focus of all providers on quality patient care (at a price the community is willing to afford). They discourage the overlap of expensive services between providers and encourage planned growth for the community. They encourage collaborative practice at the bedside, at committee and board meetings, and throughout the community that can lead to the development of a new model of "health" care as opposed to "disease" care. Finally, they promote human understanding that encourages providers to recognize the appropriate professional (considering all the variables) for each role. Without such efforts, it appears that patient care quality will be the most likely aspect of health care to suffer in the future--a result against which all health care professionals should stridently guard.