When Institutions Collide: The Competing Forces of Hospitals Sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church

For centuries, the Catholic Church has been a major social actor in the provision of health services, particularly health care delivered in hospitals. Through a confluence of powerful environmental forces at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the future of Catholic health care is threatened....

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: White, Kenneth R. 1956- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: MDPI [2013]
In: Religions
Year: 2013, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 14-29
Further subjects:B Institutional Theory
B Catholic Identity
B Catholic hospitals
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:For centuries, the Catholic Church has been a major social actor in the provision of health services, particularly health care delivered in hospitals. Through a confluence of powerful environmental forces at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the future of Catholic health care is threatened. Although United States Catholic hospitals are a separate case of private, nonprofit hospitals, they have experienced environmental pressures to compete with other hospital ownership types and, on some dimensions, Catholic hospitals are indistinguishable from other hospitals. This article conceptualizes United States Catholic hospitals as having competing institutional forces that are not always compatible. To keep pace with the changing demands of religion and the social role of the hospital, Catholic hospitals continue to redefine themselves. An adaptive framework is used to explain choices Catholic hospitals may need to make to justify their existence.
ISSN:2077-1444
Contains:Enthalten in: Religions
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3390/rel4010014