Hospital Care in the United States

1947 ◽  
Vol 47 (11) ◽  
pp. 781
Author(s):  
Louise O. Waagen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
The United States

The Diffusion of New Hospital Technologies in the United States

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 557-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise B. Russell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Hospital Costs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Major Contributor ◽  
Certificate Of Need ◽  
Hospital Regulation ◽  
Resource Requirements ◽  
Competing Technologies

Increases in the real resources used in hospital care have been an important cause behind rising hospital costs in the United States. Many of these resources have taken the form of new hospital technologies, and this paper begins by reviewing the trends in adoption of new hospital technologies over the years 1950–1974. The resource requirements, costs, and to the extent possible the patient benefits, of two of these technologies are then discussed in more detail: intensive care, a widespread facility with many variations, has been a major contributor to hospital costs; radiotherapy has been characterized by a succession of competing technologies. Regulatory efforts such as certificate-of-need reviews would be more effective if they viewed hospitals as flexible collections of such technologies—with the costs and patient benefits of each to be weighed separately—rather than primarily in terms of numbers of beds. A national center to collect information on the separate technological functions of hospitals and make it available to interested groups would make a useful contribution to hospital regulation.

Introduction

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Reich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hospital Care ◽  
Social Values ◽  
The United States ◽  
Market Forces ◽  
Hospital Practice ◽  
The People

This book explores the contradictions between the mission of hospital care and the market for it. It shows how market forces and market actors have become increasingly important to contemporary hospital practice, and yet the commodification of hospital care in the United States remains uneven and incomplete. While they compete in a competitive marketplace, many hospitals—and the people within them—work to sustain social values that sit in uneasy tension with this market. In order to understand these contradictions, the book examines not only the broad sets of rules and regulations through which the market for hospital care is structured, but also the meanings, practices, and people that make up the hospital itself. The focus is on three hospitals located in Las Lomas, California—PubliCare Hospital, HolyCare Hospital, and GroupCare Hospital—and their ongoing struggle with the contradictory nature of the commodification of hospital care.

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