Marzo Aprile 2016 - Specialità e professioni a colloquio

The dangers and drifts of health McDonaldization

Abstract

The author reflects on the healthcare crisis, starting from globalization and liquid-modern society, with its systemic contradictions. The health care system is influenced by McDonald’s success and its philosophy: efficiency, productivity, cost reduction, procedural standardization and control.

This article underlines the deficiencies and manipulations in the health care system. The profit-oriented economic model is successful due to lack of attention to product quality from the globalised and hyper-consumerist society.

Italian legislation has regulated the standardization in healthcare procedure, aiming at cost reduction of defensive medicine. It has been underlined that it defines actions, nevertheless human activity is mainly realized through language, gesture and creation. A new anthropological model is proposed, based on commitment and distributive justice.

Key words: care, distributive justice, McDonaldization, responsability, responsibility, standardization

Full text of the article is available in Italian.