The Process of Areawide Health Services Planning: A Normative Definition

A recent study of areawide health planning organization suggests that the widely publicized disillusionment with the planning concept is due in large part to the absence of a well-defined and proven planning process. With the assistance of health planning professionals, the author had developed a normative definition of the process of health services planning. This process recognizes four distinct planning stages: Stimulus to action, Assessing the feasibility of intervention, Plan development and Plan implementation. These phases are further described in terms of their component activities.