Horizontal Orbit: Hospitals And The Cult Of Efficiency

In Carol Taylor's 1970 book In Horizontal Orbit: Hospitals and the Cult of Efficiency, it is argued that the built environment of a hospital has the ability to define a hospital inhabitant's personhood. "The hospital takes custody of the patient's person, arranges to charge the patient for services rendered . . .sees to it that the patient is cared for and fed . . . and schedules the patient's journeys to and from machines that will be used to diagnose and treat him." Reference - double click to edit Essentially, the argument made is that a hospital's functionality is dependent on the hospital's ability to control patients. An alternative system is presented in which individual patient needs are considered and the hospital becomes a humanizing