Vertical integration. Although the delivery of health care is concentrated in the vertically integrated medical care sector (organized around primary, secondary, and tertiary care), many other essential child health service programs are located in the public and population health sectors (Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC; Head Start; and Early Head Start). Civic-sector programs—most notably, those provided in schools, child care centers and preschools, after-school pro- grams, and youth centers—can also serve as effective delivery sites for prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation services. Because programs and their respective sec- tors are financed, organized, administered, and evaluated separately, accountabil- ity is usually limited to immediate program goals and often ignores potential.
