Enacting corporate governance of healthcare safety and quality: a dramaturgy of hospital boards in England

Article


Freeman, T., Millar, R., Mannion, R. and Davies, H. 2016. Enacting corporate governance of healthcare safety and quality: a dramaturgy of hospital boards in England. Sociology of Health & Illness. 38 (2), pp. 233-251. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12309
TypeArticle
TitleEnacting corporate governance of healthcare safety and quality: a dramaturgy of hospital boards in England
AuthorsFreeman, T., Millar, R., Mannion, R. and Davies, H.
Abstract

The governance of patient safety is a challenging concern for all health systems. Yet, while the role of executive Boards receives increased scrutiny, the area remains theoretically and methodologically underdeveloped. Specifically, we lack a detailed understanding of the performative aspects at play: what Board members say and do to discharge their accountabilities for patient safety. This article draws on qualitative data from overt non-participant observation of four NHS hospital Foundation Trust Boards in England. Applying a dramaturgical framework to explore scripting, setting, staging and performance, we found important differences between case study sites in the performative dimensions of processing and interpretation of infection control data. We detail the practices associated with these differences - the legitimation of current performance, the querying of data classification, and the naming and shaming of executives – to consider their implications.

Keywordsgovernance; National Health Service (NHS); safety
PublisherBlackwell
JournalSociology of Health & Illness
ISSN0141-9889
Electronic1467-9566
Publication dates
Online04 Aug 2015
Print02 Feb 2016
Publication process dates
Deposited01 May 2015
Accepted18 Apr 2015
Output statusPublished
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Open
Accepted author manuscript
File Access Level
Restricted
Copyright Statement

Published version: © 2015 The Authors. Sociology of Health & Illness published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Foundation for SHIL.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12309
Scopus EID2-s2.0-84956717375
Web of Science identifierWOS:000369826400004
LanguageEnglish
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