Hope and Hyperbole: The Rhetoric and Reality of Managerial Reform in Health Care

Abstract

The scope of this essay is broad — the dangers that much conventional management commentary represents for health care institutions and those who work in them. It emphasizes two themes in the hype and hyperbole of management talk about health care. The first is the character of the language used to describe health care arrangements — the ‘rhetoric of medical managerialism’ – a rhetoric that powerfully and misleadingly combines the jargon of modem management schools with the marketing hype of advertising. Second, it includes some observations about what this cautionary tale might mean for the daily work of those in health care.