A new design for service and teaching in the out-patient department.

Abstract

For the past two years a new system of caring for the ambulatory patient and for teaching medical students in the outpatient department has been in effect at the University of Oklahoma Hospitals. Traditionally, the emphasis in teaching internal medicine has been on the bed patient. The outpatient department has often been a crowded accessory that has been adapted neither to the comfort and welfare of the patient nor to the effective teaching of the student. Recent developments, especially in combating infections, have reduced the need for bed care in treating illness and have emphasized the plight of the ambulatory patient. The focus on the treatment of patients while they are in contact with their day-to-day environment has given rise to a growing awareness among physicians that social and psychological forces may be potential pathogenic factors in disease. A comprehensive point of view has developed that cuts across traditional boundaries