Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work)

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston was once known for the excellence of its nursing care, but in recent years has witnessed the same crisis in nursing experienced across the United States' medical sector. Weinberg (senior research associate, health policy, Brandeis U.) examines the impact of managed care and hospital cost cutting and restructuring at the hospital and suggests it serves as a microcosm for of profit-driven restructuring as a whole. Concentrating on issues of organizational structure and power conflicts between groups of personnel, she argues that the more the professional influence and status of nurses were consciously reduced by hospital management in the name of efficiency, the more the quality of patient care declined. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)