Health services are the infrastructure and the processes by which individuals receive care to sustain and improve their health. They encompass an extensive range of medical, social, and community activities, including preventive care, treatment, and rehabilitation. The societal impacts of health services include a positive impact on a nation’s economic development, as well as a direct effect on people’s quality of life and happiness. The field of health services research, therefore, spans a broad spectrum of disciplines and professions, including biostatistics, clinical sciences, economics, epidemiology, history, health policy, and sociology.

The health-care industry is one of the world’s largest and most complex industries, consuming from 3 to 18 percent of a country’s gross national product and employing large numbers of skilled and unskilled workers. It is also important to a nation’s economy, as it provides jobs and benefits local communities, especially in rural areas.

There is considerable spatial variability in the availability, type, and utilization of health-care services around the world. Differences in accessibility are the result of a number of factors, including distance to services, cost, cultural beliefs and practices, and governmental policies. Spatial variation in health-care service delivery also results from the differing capabilities of different types of organizations that deliver or coordinate services. These include the health-care professionals who provide direct care, the organizations that support them, and the agencies or firms that finance them.

A key challenge in providing high-quality health services is ensuring that they are available and accessible to all. Achieving this requires funding and a trained workforce, as well as effective management of the system to control costs and promote accountability. The complexities of the health-care industry and the range of its components make this a major challenge for both public and private sectors.

In most countries, health-care services are delivered by a combination of private and public organizations. In the United Kingdom, for example, the NHS is financed through a combination of general taxation and contributions to the National Insurance fund, which cover the cost of medical expenses for all registered patients. Until the NHS was established after the Second World War, Britain had a diverse array of disorganized and often privately funded health-care facilities.

A successful health-care system requires a wide variety of resources and the development of a comprehensive framework for organizing and managing those resources. It also must be able to respond to evolving consumer needs and expectations and to cope with changing economic conditions. The specialized fields of health services research and health policy are central to these issues, as they explore how best to achieve the objectives of a health-care system. They also analyze the effectiveness of particular interventions and approaches to addressing specific diseases, illnesses, or injuries. These analyses are necessary for informing the decisions made by government officials, insurers, providers, and consumers. Ultimately, they can lead to improvements in the delivery of health-care services. This, in turn, will lead to improved health for all.