Year: 2008
Type: article
Abstract: The question posed to us, What makes health care conflicts different or more complex and difficult than other types of belies an assumption that health care conflicts are, in fact, different or more complex than other disputes. I may be the contrarian on this panel because when I first read the question my reaction was compared to what? Are health care conflicts more complex than international disputes where people fight wars for years over long-standing, entrenched differences that result in thousands of deaths and injuries? Are they more difficult than environmental disputes that involve industry polluters on one side, with pressures to keep production costs down and compete in a global economy, and environmentalists on the other, who bring law suits and stage protests to highlight wrongdoing and practices that pollute the atmosphere and threaten future generations? Are they more challenging than family disputes that sometimes have such emotional intensity they lead to physical and mental abuse and long-term damage to the psyche of family members? As you can tell, I am not quite persuaded that health care disputes are necessarily more difficult, complex, or challenging than at least some other types of disputes. While health care disputes have unique features, if you consider comparable disputes, for example, disputes over services provided by doctors versus other professionals, such as architects, lawyers, or engineers, or disputes over services provided by hospitals in contrast to hotels, there are many similarities as well as differences. Within the spectrum of health care disputes there are also many variations so that some health care disputes have characteristics that are shared with other types of disputes and others have features that are
Author: Diane E. Hoffmann
Language: English
Subfield: Pharmacy
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1481188166