Controlling the ‘bed state’: negotiating hospital organisation

Abstract

This paper examines hospital staff's reports of the ‘problem’ of the acute emergency admission. It is argued that from the initial framing of the problem in terms of crisis and efficiency, through to the apparent solution in a management regime of Bed Management, an important aspect of the organisation of the hospital was achieved. This aspect of organisation stressed the ascendancy of the hospital as the main unit of organisation ‐ together with its associated management regimes ‐ against the more local configuration of the hospital's wards which traditionally had formed the basis of clinical power. Copyright © 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved