Accounting and Washing

Good Care in Long-Term Psychiatry

Bibliographic Data

ID5337304
AuthorsJ Pols (0000-0003-0157-2388, Amsterdam Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume31
Issue4
Pages409-430
Publication date2006-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243906287544
OpenAlexW2105694865
LanguageEN
Citations received33
References cited23

This article analyzes how the recent call for accounting in health care interferes with daily care practice and raises the question of how accounting practices relate to the aim of good care. The most influential accounting methods in the Netherlands suggest ways for professionals to legitimize their activities. The analysis of washing patients in long-term mental health care shows that different styles of accounting evaluate and legitimize care while structuring notions of what good care is. A specific style of accounting enforces certain values but does not tell about the tragic or unexpected effects that come with it, nor does it provide a repertoire to deal with these. Thus, care practices incorporating specific styles of accounting remain dependent on forms of care that are not accountable or ask for new forms of reflexivity

Business · Health care · Political science · Public relations · Reflexivity · Repertoire · Social science · Sociology · Structuring · History · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Psychology · Accounting