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Thu 31 Oct, 2013 10:50 pm
Context:
Strikes by physicians: a historical perspective toward an ethical evaluation.Thompson SL, Salmon JW.
SourceDepartment of Health Studies, National-Louis University, Chicago, USA.
AbstractCurrent conditions surrounding the house of medicine-including corporate and government cost-containment strategies, increasing market-penetration schemes in health care, along with clinical scrutiny and the administrative control imposed under privatization by managed care firms, insurance companies, and governments-have spurred an upsurge in physician unionization, which requires a revisiting of the issue of physician strikes. Strikes by physicians have been relatively rare events in medical history. When they have occurred, they have aroused intense debate over their ethical justification among professionals and the public alike, notwithstanding what caused the strikes. As physicians and other health care providers increasingly find employment within organizations as wage-contract employees and their work becomes more highly rationalized, more physicians will join labor organizations to protect both their economic and their professional interests. As a result, these physicians will have to come to terms with the use of the strike weapon. On the surface, many health care strikes may not ever seem justifiable, but in certain defined situations a strike would be not only permissible but an ethical imperative. With an exacerbation of labor strife in the health sector in many nations, it is crucial to explore the question of what constitutes an ethical physician strike.
@oristarA,
Quote:including corporate and government cost-containment strategies
Doesn't look like it means hospitals specifically, but hospitals might be included in the phrase. It really looks like the phrase were contrived especially for this essay.
@oristarA,
House
noun, often attributive \ˈhau̇s\
6. c : a quorum of such an assembly
Ori - I think the writer is trying to say the house is the whole picture. An assembly of conflicting pressures on healthcare from all the interested parties. In other words, the house is a mess and physicians might have to join unions and go on strike to protect their turf etc.
As an aside. That first sentence is a doozy. Jeepers, you have to come up for air every once in a while.