Chronic pain clinics: An example of the rise in entrepreneurial medicine.
Item
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Title
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Chronic pain clinics: An example of the rise in entrepreneurial medicine.
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Identifier
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AAI9020744
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identifier
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9020744
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Creator
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Behar, Joel.
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Contributor
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Adviser: William Kornblum
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, General | Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery
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Abstract
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Some sociologists have held that the humane practice of medicine tends to be incompatible with the pursuit of the profit motive. During the last few decades a trend towards increased entrepreneurial activities by health care providers has been observed. The apparent moral contradiction between the humane treatment of patients and the profit motive is seen as problematic. Little empirical evidence has been assembled to test this assumption. The present investigation explores the phenomenon of entrepreneurial medicine from within the context of one representative form, i.e., a physician owned chronic pain treatment center.;Data were gathered primarily through intensive participant observation over a period of three and one half years (1985-1988), review of the literature and secondarily through the study of organizational documents and original survey research. The research site is called the Pain Relief Clinic (PRC), a physician owned, proprietary medical facility. Several hundred chronic pain sufferers were treated at PRC, utilizing a multiple modality treatment team approach.;The investigation took as a starting point the existence of a fundamental imbalance of power between the physician-owner and the professional staff alike and focused on one question in particular, i.e., can the needs of patients be insured despite the increasingly entrepreneurial activities of physicians.;A major conclusion of this study, stated in the form of a provisional hypothesis, suggests that the basis of the doctor-patient relationship may be at risk since the degree to which a physician is an entrepreneur markedly affects the clinical treatment of patients. The inherent conflicts of interest between the ethical ideals of the medical profession and the dictates of sound business practice were found to operate in such a way so as to seriously jeopardize the type of treatment that patients could expect to receive. This phenomenon is thought to be reflective of structural characteristics within society, as Hommans has called them, asymmetrical power relations, rather than the idiosyncratic characteristics of one particular individual or type of setting.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
