The Growth of Medical Technology and Bureaucracy: Implications for Medical Care

National policies regarding the financing and organization of care increasingly aim to control "technological imperatives." No country can afford to fulfill all the public's medical demands upon resources, and the physician is emerging as central to an inevitable system of rationing. Any rationing will shift influence from both client and practitioner to officialdom. The coming bureaucratization challenges and changes the expectations inherent in the traditional roles of doctor and patient.

Author(s): David Mechanic

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Volume 55, Issue 1 (pages 61–78)
Published in 1977