ABSTRACT
This review of the sociology of hospitals reveals a rich and varied literature. These studies focus on distinct problems and issues, some organizational and some interactional in scope. Moreover, one of four or five long-standing traditions underlie all of these efforts to frame an understanding of the contemporary hospital. As we have attempted to show, the use of one point of view leads to the neglect of elements that might be illuminated if a more synthesizing perspective were employed. Paradoxically, the great weakness of each point of departure and focus is its very analytic power—the capacity to elevate some aspect of the hospital world to a level of much importance and clarity, while failing to discern other equally important issues facing the modern hospital.
