{"title":"Sorting patients and institutional bad faith: A study of a hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic in France","authors":"Maud Gelly","doi":"10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117801","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The COVID-19 epidemic exposed a glaring imbalance between the need for hospitalization and the material and human resources required to meet it. A qualitative study was conducted in a hospital in a region of France overwhelmed by the epidemic in 2020, and this resulting article analyzes how hospital employees came to terms with the shortage of hospital resources. Research reveals the contradictions between the denial of patient sorting by top national leadership and hospital management and its everyday practice by hospital agents in direct contact with the public. Agents who had to sort the sick did not experience a moral dilemma in making these decisions, but those who were not in decision-making positions but had to manage the consequences did. This article contributes to the sociology of sorting by focusing on the practices of agents, being attentive to their moral quandaries and after-the-fact rationalizations in addition to the tactical dimensions of sorting, meaning the concrete local issues to which it responds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49122,"journal":{"name":"Social Science & Medicine","volume":"367 ","pages":"Article 117801"},"PeriodicalIF":4.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Social Science & Medicine","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625001303","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PUBLIC, ENVIRONMENTAL & OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH","Score":null,"Total":0}
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Abstract
The COVID-19 epidemic exposed a glaring imbalance between the need for hospitalization and the material and human resources required to meet it. A qualitative study was conducted in a hospital in a region of France overwhelmed by the epidemic in 2020, and this resulting article analyzes how hospital employees came to terms with the shortage of hospital resources. Research reveals the contradictions between the denial of patient sorting by top national leadership and hospital management and its everyday practice by hospital agents in direct contact with the public. Agents who had to sort the sick did not experience a moral dilemma in making these decisions, but those who were not in decision-making positions but had to manage the consequences did. This article contributes to the sociology of sorting by focusing on the practices of agents, being attentive to their moral quandaries and after-the-fact rationalizations in addition to the tactical dimensions of sorting, meaning the concrete local issues to which it responds.
期刊介绍：
Social Science & Medicine provides an international and interdisciplinary forum for the dissemination of social science research on health. We publish original research articles (both empirical and theoretical), reviews, position papers and commentaries on health issues, to inform current research, policy and practice in all areas of common interest to social scientists, health practitioners, and policy makers. The journal publishes material relevant to any aspect of health from a wide range of social science disciplines (anthropology, economics, epidemiology, geography, policy, psychology, and sociology), and material relevant to the social sciences from any of the professions concerned with physical and mental health, health care, clinical practice, and health policy and organization. We encourage material which is of general interest to an international readership.
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