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Sorting patients and institutional bad faith: A study of a hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic in France

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  • Gelly, Maud

Abstract

The COVID-19 epidemic exposed a glaring imbalance between the need for hospitalization and the material and human resources required to meet it. A qualitative study was conducted in a hospital in a region of France overwhelmed by the epidemic in 2020, and this resulting article analyzes how hospital employees came to terms with the shortage of hospital resources. Research reveals the contradictions between the denial of patient sorting by top national leadership and hospital management and its everyday practice by hospital agents in direct contact with the public. Agents who had to sort the sick did not experience a moral dilemma in making these decisions, but those who were not in decision-making positions but had to manage the consequences did. This article contributes to the sociology of sorting by focusing on the practices of agents, being attentive to their moral quandaries and after-the-fact rationalizations in addition to the tactical dimensions of sorting, meaning the concrete local issues to which it responds.

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  • Gelly, Maud, 2025. "Sorting patients and institutional bad faith: A study of a hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic in France," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 367(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:367:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625001303
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.117801
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christian Baudelot & Yvanie Caillé & Olivier Godechot & Sylvie Mercier & Paul Reeve, 2016. "Renal Diseases and Social Inequalities in Access to Transplantation in France," Population (english edition), Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED), vol. 0(1), pages 23-51.
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    3. Morel, Sylvie, 2019. "Inequality and discrimination in access to urgent care in France Ethnographies of three healthcare structures and their audiences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 25-32.
    4. Khlat, Myriam & Ghosn, Walid & Guillot, Michel & Vandentorren, Stéphanie, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the mortality profiles of the foreign-born in France during the first pandemic wave," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 313(C).
    5. Wamsiedel, Marius, 2020. "Credibility work and moral evaluation at the ED," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
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