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

Saks, Mike

doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2017.100

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

Document Type : Commentary

Author

Mike Saks ¹^{, 2}^{, 3}^{, 4}^{, 5}

¹ University of Suffolk, Ipswich, UK

² University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK

³ Royal Veterinary College, University of London, London, UK

⁴ University of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, UK

⁵ University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

10.15171/ijhpm.2017.100

Abstract

This paper offers a short commentary on the editorial by Mannion and Exworthy. The paper highlights the positive insights offered by their analysis into the tensions between the competing institutional logics of standardization and customization in healthcare, in part manifested in the conflict between managers and professionals, and endorses the plea of the authors for further research in this field. However, the editorial is criticized for its lack of a strong societal reference point, the comparative absence of focus on hybridization, and its failure to highlight structural factors impinging on the opposing logics in a broader neo-institutional framework. With reference to the Procrustean metaphor, it is argued that greater stress should be placed on the healthcare user in future health policy. Finally, the case of complementary and alternative medicine is set out which – while not explicitly mentioned in the editorial – most effectively concretizes the tensions at the heart of this analysis of healthcare.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Health Management

References

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