ABSTRACT
The American health care system is undergoing a profound transformation caused in part by changes in health care needs and new technology. As more people are kept alive with chronic medical conditions, health care is shifting from an acute care and episodic focus to an extended care, continuity-based focus as eighty percent of morbidity and ninety percent of mortality are now due to chronic conditions. 1 . While health care was previously centered in the physician's office and the acute care hospital, it has expanded to involve a complex array of community-based care providers. Thus, a significant emerging concern is the coordination of health care services provided to individuals through a multitude of health care providers and settings. This is an important emerging area of social work program development.
