BOOKS OF RtfiDIfGS - PAHO/WHO

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physician in a county. However, a political unit like a county may
not accurately represent a medical service area since it is possible for
cities of subustantial population to be located relatively doe to a
county line, thus providing medical care to residents of contiguous
counties,. or lor physiciana to be located within casy acces of people
lrom another county.
In this study, pimary medical care service arcas are defined as
population cetera and their environs, specifically, towns or cities with
population of at least 2,000 (the approximate number of people per
primary care physician in the United States [7]) plus thc people in the
immediate environs of these towns or citie. The environs are defined
as the area within a five-mile radius of the town or city since
that is a reasonable distane o travel to a physician. If the boundary
drawn around the city overlaps that of another city, a combined service
area re uluL Acording to this definltion, Indiana contains 79
primay care atate's rc. The counties are grouped into 12 districts.
each of which u divided into primuary care center and the residual
rural area surrounding he centers (lee accompanying figure, p. 292).
F himain cthe Capadty of the FulLTime Primury Care Pbysdcin
A f~ e priamuy are r P) phylan is defined as a general
or fmmly practition the age group S3S9, wh!-h he, the highest
utput in term O visitu per year fOr this speciaty 8]. (Tables 1 and
2, p. 29.) Prmary care phyiciam are condred to comprise nonfed.
aeralo a~bed .hyidam, boCd medical anad ostophic, who are
gen ralmd * aMaily pationer, pediariciba, internis, obstetriciangYo{o{
or ger~ l faoo The output of one ~FPC physician
a d~mdas he nusber o prma are visits per year for a general
« fnilyS prncdt r in the a ge group 5-9. The output of phypiciam
wt oth r ad spedlty charalt b expresed as a percmte~
d tbe output of tde IMPC pbydian. Vitsa per week and
we~s praciem pr yar by an FFPC phyuidan were computed from
Rc