Toward the integration of psychosocial services in the general hospital. The human services department

Abstract

This article describes an innovative administrative organization for the delivery of psychologic care in the contemporary teaching hospital that, by combining services under medical leadership, takes an evolutionary beyond multidisciplinary team approaches. The long-range goal of this organization is to provide cost-effective psychosocial services in the general hospital while maintaining the unique role contributions of the participating disciplines. To allow for informed decision making in this process, the initial step has been to establish a collaborative data base for patient and staff tracking, program planning, and evaluation.