摘要：The United States is currently experiencing extensive health care reform. Subsequently, American attitudes towards health care have significantly changed. Americans are becoming more responsible and involved in accessing health care. Americans are independently seeking more medical and health information to become well educated medical consumers. Medical consumerism in the United States was initiated in the 1970's. A 1990 survey conducted by the American Hospital Association identified that nearly 50% of 2, 167 American hospitals with adequate libraries provided service to members of the community. Well informed patients and medical consumers are becoming more empowered to determine their treatment and participate in decision making for the selection of optimum care. Today, the concepts of “Advanced Directives”, “Informed Consent” “Living Wills”, and “Patients Rights”, are well accepted in medical and hospital settings. This paper will also present the evolution of modern trends of American medical consumerism and the influence of the “Library Service and Construction Act”, that accelerated consumers access to medical information. A selection of fundamental considerations to run and manage a consumer health information center will be presented including the topics of staffing, location, and collection.
关键词：Consumer Health Information Services;Patient Education;Medical Consumerism;Health Care Reform;United States of America
