The elderly and the health care system: another perspective.

Sources of information about the population's health and its utilization of parts of the system are more numerous and varied than ever before. For the elderly, the range of formal and informal services used, and the patterns of use, are more complex than is revealed by most data bases. The annual movement of a hypothetical 100,000 elderly persons through the health care system is schematically diagrammed. The interrelatedness of seemingly discrete components is demonstrated; periodic review of such movement can contribute to judicious and efficient planning of services and their use.