Lay Values, Organizational Concerns, and the Handling of ‘Social Cases’ in Romanian Emergency Departments
Lay Values, Organizational Concerns, and the Handling of ‘Social Cases’ in Romanian Emergency Departments

Summary/Abstract: This paper documents the staff-devised membership criteria for the ‘social case’ category and the subsequent handling of clients to whom the category applies at the emergency departments of two public hospitals in Romania. The handling of social cases attests to the decline of the working class in post-socialism and the failure of the social welfare system to meet the needs of the most vulnerable members of the society. At the same time, it gives insights into the permeation of lay morality in healthcare practices and reveals the limited applicability of the theory of moral evaluation of patients in post-socialist medical contexts.

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