Toward a women-centered health care system: women's experiences, women's voices, women's needs.

In this report we describe the results from 19 focus groups of nearly 250 women held in 1993 and 1994, in which diverse groups of women were asked to respond to a model health care delivery system. This project, sponsored by the Women's Health Advisory Committee of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, solicited focused input from diverse groups of women as they reviewed the draft of an "ideal" women's health care service model. Women's responses to an ideal system revealed some of the problems inherent with the current "nonsystem" of health care delivery. These responses were categorized into general themes and are presented here to demonstrate the range of women's experiences with their current health care, from their perspective and in their voices.