Abstract:
Using experiences from the South African public healthcare system with limited resources, this review
proposes a model that captures a holistic perspective of diagnostic imaging services embedded in a
network of negotiated decision-making processes. Professional interdependency and interprofessional
collaboration, cooperation and coordination are built around the central notion of integration in order to
achieve a seamless transition through the continuum of various types of services needed to come to a
diagnosis. Health-system role players interact with patients who enter the system from the perspective
of their life-world. The distribution of diagnostic imaging services e within one setting or at multiple
levels of care e demonstrates how fragments of information are filtered, interpreted and transformed at
each point of care. The proposed model could contribute to alignment towards a common goal: services
providing holistic quality of care within and beyond a complex healthcare system.
