Sociology Ch 13&14

Factors influencing hospital expenses

- Regional cost of living - Occupancy rate - Burdensome paperwork loads for insurance claims - Technological innovations - Maintaining up-to-date facilities

Folk healing: Curanderismo healing

-Curanderos and curanderas are Mexican American folk healers -blend religion and medicine into a single approach, emphasize cause of disorders rather than symptoms, and do not distinguish natural from supernatural -employs prayer and religious counseling alongside a variety of folk drugs and herbs

Folk Healing: American Indian healing

-Navajos -Traditional rituals may last several days, lead by a singer -illness is seen as caused by soul loss, witchcraft, spirit possession, or violations of tribal tattoos -emphasis on cause of illness, diseases, classified by caused rather than symptoms -practices declining bc fewer men trained as singers, long ceremonies are increasingly difficult to afford

Hospitals in the United States

-The first one was founded more than 250yrs ago -development paralleled that of Western European institutions in the 1700s -early hospitals were founded mostly by private citizens who wanted care available on a nonprofit basis -Federal government not involved in healthcare until 1798

Folk healing

-Used by some low-income and minority populations -They have persisted in modern societies largely bc of dissatisfaction with professional medicine and a cultural gap between biomedical practitioners and particular patients

Folk healing: African American folk healers

-belief system does not differentiate between science and religion -like is generally good or bad and a cure for one problem may cure multiple problems -emphasizes the cause of the problems rather than symptoms -distinguished between natural illnesses (which may be divine and require repentance) or unnatural illnesses caused by evil influences or magic.

The development of the hospital as a social institution

-formal institution in modern society to meet complex health needs -gives the patient access to centralized medical knowledge and advanced technology -protects both families and society from the disruptive effects of illness by placing the sick within the institution for medical care

Chiropractors

-like osteopaths, the chiropractors approach healing also involved manipulation of bones in the spinal column -the medical profession has traditionally opposed the extension of professional status to chiropractors -conflicts within the occupation over appropriate role, and little control over who may be licensed for practice

Complementary and Alternative medicine (CAM)

-little sociological research has been conducted; persons who use some form of alternative or "new age" medicine tend to have middle- or working-class social backgrounds -those who use faith and folk healers typically come from a lower-class background and use these practitioners bc they are inexpensive and culturally similar

The hospital: dual authority

-organization consists of a varied group of professionals and allied health workers with different functions, training, and occupational values -effective functioning needed a decentralized system of authority organized around the central objective of service to patient -System can cause stress, inconsistency overlapping of responsibility, and inadequate coordination -but also results in a process of negotiations that results in efficient and standardized forms of behavior not dependent on special instructions for all situations

Centers of religious practice

-originally established for religious purposes -medical care was supervised and largely performed by clergy and nuns -primary functions of the medieval hospital were the exercise of religious practices and the extension of charity and welfare services to the poor, including both the able-bodied and the sick

Deathhouses

-physicians had little influence or involvement in early hospitals -by the 19th century hospitals had taken on their present-day role as institutions for medical care -hospitals during this period were crowded and unsanitary, and the low success rate of medical intervention often meant that hospitals were viewed as places where the poor went to die.

Costs can be controlled through

-reducing paperwork loads -National health insurance coverage -fee schedules

The rising cost of hospitalization

-routine costs, which include room and board of patient, employee salaries, and the cost of nonmedical supplies -ancillary costs: comprised of laboratory surgical diagnostic, and medical supply costs

Poorhouses

-secularized during the Renaissance and the Reformation -led to a decline in the hospital system - Hospitals during this period acquired the characteristics of boarding houses

The hospital-patient role

1) stripping of personal belongings and control over visitors and daily routines 2) control of resources, including diagnostic information by staff 3) restriction of patient mobility -similarities between Parson's sick role and the role of the hospital patient -inpatient care adds a role of additionally characterized by submission to authority, enforced cooperation, and depersonalized status

Faith healing and religion categories:

1)self-treatment through prayer 2)treatment by a layperson thought to be able to communicate with God 3)treatment by an official church leader as one of their duties 4)healing obtained from a person or group who practices healing full-time without an affiliation with a major religious organization 5)healing obtained from religious healers who practice full time and are affiliated with a major religious group

Hospital ownership

Nonprofit: most common type(51% 2007); controlled by a board of trustees, exempt from federal income taxes; characterized as emphasizing high-quality care for all classes -For-profit: growing trend, often part of a multi-hospital chain -Government(local, state, or federal) generally lack prestige compared to other hospitals; major source of care low-income populations

Faith healing and religion

People who use the power of suggestion, prayer, and faith in God to promote healing ex: Pentecostal churches

Osteopaths

They work as physicians with the added skill of training in spinal procedures. -Achieved professional respectability by moving away from an exclusive focus on spinal manipulation techniques to great general health problems