Licensing and regulation of medical and medical-related practitioners in health service teams.

Abstract

Licensure of physicians developed when medical care was provided largely by solo practitioners in an entrepreneurial fashion. These statutes, and those governing other health workers, may not be applicable to the modern system of increasingly organized health services, staffed by professionals prepared in accredited programs and working with increasing numbers of auxiliaries as a team. Licensure laws are therefore examined in relation to current and emerging patterns of delivering health services. The variety of regulatory mechanisms is reviewed. Recent legislative changes to meet the problems of supply, quality, geographic distribution, and use of personnel are discussed. Regulation of health teams is suggested as an approach to permit full and flexible use of personnel and at the same time to safeguard the quality of medical care. THE MAIN PROBLEMS affecting health manpower relate to the supply, quality, geographic distribution, and use of personnel.l Many forces other than licensure or certification of personnel contribute to solution of these problems. Wages and working conditions, requirements of educational institutions, location and standards of health facilities, and administrative and organizational patterns of providing services are, in general, more influential in resolving