Abstract

GARCIA, María Guadalupe; RECODER, María Laura  and  MARGULIES, Susana. Space, time and power in hospital health care: Contributions based on the ethnography of an obstetric center. Salud colect. [online]. 2017, vol.13, n.3, pp.391-409. ISSN 1669-2381.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18294/sc.2017.1150.

This paper presents the results of an ethnographic study of an obstetric center within a hospital of Greater Buenos Aires and an analysis of the spatio-temporal dimension of hospital care. The fieldwork, carried out between 2007 and 2011, followed the everyday dynamics of the hospital and included observation in the obstetrics unit (waiting areas, the obstetric center where births and emergencies receive care, and the ambulatory care, ultrasound, and hospitalization rooms, among others) as well as spaces such as the appointments and statistics offices, the office of social services, the central hall, the pharmacy, and hallway waiting areas. Interviews were carried out with department heads, obstetricians, nurses, social workers, staff of the laboratory and the appointment and statistics offices, volunteers and patients. In this way, the article analyzes the medical-bureaucratic routines in the admission and hospitalization of women in the obstetrics center; the disputes, transactions and negotiations occurring among professionals, patients and families; the delimitation of spaces; and the temporal sequences and hierarchies involved in the passage from the “outside” to the “inside” of the hospital.

Keywords : Ethnography; Hospital Care; Obstetrics; Argentina.

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