ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the foray into the land of health services is not exhaustive but it will familiarize readers who are new to health services with some of the language and organizational structures that might be encountered when entering the field. It demonstrates that individual worker's decision and action options are actually highly structured by the systems that they work within, professional cultures included. Research in the area of health care provision and health seeking is nothing new and it goes on worldwide. Historically, health services research (HSR) emerged in the context of increasing concern about accountability in U. S. health care. However funded and however focused whether patient-provider interaction, employee experiences, information flow, use of space, or other issues are under study anthropologically informed HSR generally takes place within health services organizations. Organizations articulate multiple, sometimes somewhat redundant units; they are supported or enacted by a myriad of professionals filling varied organizational niches.
