Book Reviews : Bringing the Hospital Home—Ethical and Social Im plications of High-Tech Home Care. Edited by John D. Arras. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, pp. 259, $40.00
Abstract
358 Book ReviewsBringing the Hospital Home—Ethical and Social Im plications of High-Tech Home Care. Edited by John D. Arras. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, pp. 259, $40.00 SAGE Publications, Inc.1997DOI: 10.1177/0272989X9701700317 With an undoubtedly controversial, yet critical, topic of discussion, editor John D. Arras and his team of authors have tried to prove and analyze the ethical and social implications of the ever-expanding area of high-tech home care. The patient's home has been a place of serenity and tranquility, and with the advent of "hospital-resembling" home care, there are bound to be both favorable and unfavorable issues. The book has been based on a project done at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The goal was to study the impact of high-tech home care not only on patients, but also on their families and caregivers, and to examine the provider-patient relationship and recommend policies that would adequately and justly disseminate the technology. Several patients, policy analysts, clinicians, family members, and involved caregivers were included in the discussions. The preface discusses the evolution of the financial motivation for sending patients home as soon as possible, with early discharge leading to sicker patients' being sent home