The patient evaluation grid: a systematic approach to comprehensive care.

A comprehensive approach to patients requires a systemic method that complements the clinical approach to disease. The method described here utilizes a patient evaluation grid that takes into account the biological, personal, and environmental dimensions of the patient and the current, recent, and background contexts of illness. It allows the clinician to anticipate problems relating to patient care and to assign priorities to management plans formulated in the three dimensions. It may also facilitate further research into the interrelationships among the multiple determinants of illness. This approach may help to bridge the gap between psychiatry and medicine by providing an integrated conceptual framework of organizing information.