[Health services as a study object: preconditions, principles, applications]

The call for more research in health care delivery has increased with the rising cost of medical care. Since the end of the fifties, a new research direction is identifying itself primarily in the Anglo-Saxon literature: Health Services Research. Examples discussed include results of Health Services Research regarding the diffusion of medical technology and the mechanisms to control costs of health services. These and similar results from special studies on average length of stay and utilization of hospital beds show that Health Services Research should develop from primarily descriptive studies into an analytical and experimental discipline in order to provide clues to the pressing problems of the delivery of medical care.