Mapping the Hospital

Epidemiology, Infection, and Antibiotic Governance at the Clínica Puerta de Hierro, Madrid, Spain

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11261568
AutoresCristina Moreno Lozano (0000-0002-0403-2881, University of Edinburgh, autor correspondente)
Ano2026
Volume51
Fascículo5
Páginas1084-1112
Data de publicação2026-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditoraSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/01622439261423525
OpenAlexW7147395262
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas24

This article examines how a group of microbiologists organized their practices for the governance of hospital infections, positioning the clinical microbiology laboratory as an obligatory passage point for such interventions and for a new, modern vision of the hospital as an institution cognizant of its infectious risks. Drawing on fieldwork, archival research and oral histories with former members of the laboratory at the Clínica Puerta de Hierro in Madrid, Spain, during the late 1960s, I argue that these microbiologists employed epidemiological tools to claim their authority over antibiotic governance and hospital infections. Particularly relevant was the epidemiological map, a blueprint of the hospital where lab staff pinpointed hospital infections of clinical concern. By describing and showing these paper technologies in symposia, published papers, and conference discussions, the maps both materialized the professional and disciplinary authority of the microbiology lab and assisted in enrolling clinical colleagues into new interventions for managing antibiotic use and containing in-hospital infections. Most significantly, the maps were able to transform the vision of the hospital architecture as infectious landscape, replacing the traditional idea of a space void of infectious risk with a modernized account of an institution capable of effectively controlling and governing the hospital's infectiousness

Blueprint · Clinical governance · Corporate governance · Discipline · Institution · Psychological intervention · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes