(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare

Document Type: Editorial

Authors

Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed a parallel and seemingly contradictory trend towards both the standardization and the customization of healthcare and medical treatment. Here, we explore what is meant by ‘standardization’ and ‘customization’ in healthcare settings and explore the implications of these changes for healthcare delivery. We frame the paradox of these divergent and opposing factors in terms of institutional logics – the socially constructed rules, practices and beliefs which perpetuate institutional behaviour. As the tension between standardization and customization is fast becoming a critical fault-line within many health systems, there remains an urgent need for more sustained work exploring how these competing logics are articulated, adapted, resisted and co-exist on the front line of care delivery.

Highlights

Commentaries Published on this Paper

  • Personalisation - An Emergent Institutional Logic in Healthcare?; Comment on “(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”

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  • It Takes Two to Tango: Customization and Standardization as Colluding Logics in Healthcare; Comment on “(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”

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  • Providers and Patients Caught Between Standardization and Individualization: Individualized Standardization as a Solution; Comment on “(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”

          Abstract | PDF

  • Best of Both Worlds; Comment on “(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”

          Abstract | PDF

  • Competing Logics and Healthcare; Comment on “(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”

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  • Toward Customized Care; Comment on “(Re) Making the Procrustean Bed? Standardization and Customization as Competing Logics in Healthcare”

          Abstract | PDF

 

Authors’ Response to the Commentaries

  • Researching the Co-Existence and Continuity of Standardization and Customization in Healthcare: A Response to Recent Commentaries

          Abstract | PDF

Keywords

Main Subjects

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International Journal of Health Policy and Management

Volume 6, Issue 6
June 2017
Pages 301-304

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