Assembling Homo Qualitus: Accounting for Quality in the UK National Health Service

This paper describes the historical emergence of an accountable quality in public policies and reforms of the UK National Health Service: that is a notion of quality which is expressed through accounting and other formal measurement and management devices. It also specifies the idealized subject of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe European accounting review Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 875 - 902
Main Authors Pflueger, Dane, Pedersen, Kirstine Zinck
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Routledge 08.08.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Accounting
Affect
Health services
Healthcare
Measurement
Medical personnel
New Public Management
Professionalism
Quality
Transformation
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Summary:This paper describes the historical emergence of an accountable quality in public policies and reforms of the UK National Health Service: that is a notion of quality which is expressed through accounting and other formal measurement and management devices. It also specifies the idealized subject of an accountable quality, homo qualitus, and attends to instances of his/her incomplete realization. Doing so contributes to the problematization and rethinking of the way that accounting, professionalism, and the relationship between the two, are often understood. It shows that an accountable quality involves attempts to transform accounting from something external to, and imposed upon, or selectively adopted by, medical professionals into a measure of, in principle, any healthcare workers' individual enthusiasm for, and commitment toward, quality itself. The incomplete nature of this transformation offers insights into complex ways in which discourse and practice may interact.
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ISSN:0963-8180
1468-4497
DOI:10.1080/09638180.2022.2035789