Defending the hospital or supporting the complainant: morality in medical disputes

Abstract

Why do frontline administrators, as liable representatives of the hospital, sometimes neglect the interests of the hospital when handling medical disputes and help complainants? Fieldwork in a tertiary hospital in northern China found that when the hospital’s frontline administrators handled specific cases of medical dispute, their actions were strongly shaped by personal and moral judgments in different situations, including their understanding of what happened, their relationships in that context, and whether the complainants were worthy of their help. This study challenges the commonly imagined hospital-complainant confrontation in contemporary China and introduces micro-level judgment, morality, and interpersonal interaction of the hospital’s frontline administrators into research work on medical disputes. This case also contributes to a better understanding of the dynamic role of morality in organizational contexts.