Archives


Computerised Hospital Work

Fordism and Faylorism revisited

Eileen Willis
School of Medicine, Flinders University, Adelaide SA, Australia

Abstract

The application of new Information Communications Technologies (ICT) to the reorganisation and international relocation of service related work is becoming increasingly evident. There has been a good deal of attention given to this process of relocation in the literature in relation to customer service and high technology service industries such as software production.

Despite the increasing body of evidence that e-medicine sites are proliferating on the world wide web there seems to be little discussion of this in terms of the implications for medical labour. This paper argues that medical labour is far from impervious to the possibilities of relocation. It uses a case study of international relocation of work in the health sector to illustrate the argument.

Keywords

computerised workload system, nursing, Excelcare


Toggle references

References

Bramble Thomas (1990) ‘The Utopian fantasy of post-Fordism': A review of John Mathews' tools of change, Socialist Review 2:85-101.

Braverman Harry (1974) Labor and monopoly capital: the degradation of work in the twentieth century, New York: Monthly review Press.

Campbell Marie (1992) Nurses' professionalism in Canada: a labour process analysis, The International Journal of Health Services 4: 751-765.

Campbell Marie (2000) Knowledge, gendered subjectivity and the re-structuring of health care: The case of the disappearing nurse. In Neysmifh Sheila (ed) Restructuring caring labour, Chapter 9, UK: Oxford University Press.

Campbell Iain (1993) Labour market flexibility in Australia: enhancing management prerogative? Labour and Industry 3: 1-32.

Davis Alan and George Janet (1993) States of health: health and illness in Australia 2nd edn, NSW: Harper Educational.

Daykin Norma and Clarke Brenda (2000) ‘They'll still get the bodily care': Discourses of care and relationships between nurses and health care assistants in the NHS, Sociology of Health and Illness 3: 349-363.

Draper Mary (1992) Casemix quality and consumers: fixing the mix, Melbourne: Health Issues Centre.

Duckett, Stephen (1995) Casemix Development and implementation in Australia: the unfinished agenda, Keynote address to the Seventh Casemix conference in Australia 'Managing Better with Casemix', Adelaide, July.

Harrison Stephen and Pollitt Christopher (1994) Controlling health professionals: the future of work and organisations in the National Health Service, Buckingham: Open University Press.

Harvey Janet (1995) Up-skilling and the intensification of work: the ‘extended role' in intensive care nursing and midwifery, The Sociological Review 4: 765-781.

Mathews John (1992) New production systems: a response to critics and a re-evaluation, Australian Journal of Political Economy 30: 91-128.

O'Donnell Michael (1995) Empowerment or enslavement: lean production, immigrant women and service work in public hospitals, Labour and Industry 6: 73-94.

Parkes Robyn, Picone Debbie and Challinger Kaye (1994) Nursing and Casemix 1993/4 - 1995/6, National Strategic Plan, Canberra: The Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health and the Australian Nursing Federation.

Urbanowicz, Janet (1999) An evaluation of an acuity system as it applies to a cardiac catheterization laboratory, Computers in Nursing 3:129-134.

Wooldridge, Michael (2000) Terms of reference for review of nurse education in Australia, Canberra: Department of Health and Family Services. Computerised,



Web Feed

Latest Articles

Call for Papers

Community, Family, Citizenship and the Health of LGBTIQ People
Volume 17/3
Deadline: Closed


The Determinants of Child Health and Wellbeing
Volume 18/1
Deadline: Closed


Expert Patient Policy
Volume 18/2
Deadline: 15th Aug 2008


Cultures of Life: Transitions and limits in the governance of ageing
Volume 18/4
Deadline: 20th Feb 2009


Special Issues

Cultures of Life: Transitions and limits in the governance of ageing
Vol 18/4, 1st Dec 2009


Expert Patient Policy
Vol 18/2, 1st Jun 2009


The Determinants of Child Health and Wellbeing
Vol 18/1, 1st Apr 2009


Integrative, Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Challenges for Biomedicine?
Vol 17/4, 1st Dec 2008


Community, Family, Citizenship and the Health of LGBTIQ People
Vol 17/3, 1st Aug 2008


Re-imagining Preventive Health: Theoretical Perspectives
Vol 17/2, 1st Jun 2008


Death, Dying and Loss in the 21st Century
Vol 16/5, 1st Dec 2007


Social Equity and Health
Vol 16/2, 1st Jun 2007


Medical Dominance Revisited
Vol 15/5, 1st Dec 2006


Childbirth, Politics & the Culture of Risk
Vol 15/4, 1st Oct 2006


Revisiting Sexualities and Health
Vol 15/3, 1st Aug 2006


Closing Asylums for the Mentally Ill: Social Consequences
Vol 14/3, 1st Dec 2005


Workplace Health: The Injuries of Neoliberalism
Vol 14/1, 1st Aug 2005


Symposium on Rural Health: Patients and Practitioners
Vol 13/2, 1st Dec 2004


Symposium on Women's Health
Vol 13/1, 1st Apr 2004


Sponsored Links

Selected Articles

The Mismanagement of Dying
Beverley McNamara, Lorna Rosenwax


Unobtrusive research in the health social sciences
Allan Kellehear PhD


Whatever Happened to Social Class?
Glennys Howarth


Re-Claiming or Re-Shaping Fatherhood
Christine Everingham, Tarquin Bowers


Injured Workers' Experiences of the Workers' Compensation Claims Process
Margarita Parrish, Toni Schofield


On the inequitable impact of universal health insurance: The experience of Bulgaria in transition
Stephanie D. Short, Valentin Dimitrov Hadjiev, Zdravka Dimitrova Toneva


Website by Arrowsmith Websites. Business, Government & Corporate Websites, Web Hosting, Domain Names & SEO. Maleny, Sunshine Coast, Australia.