Patients' Views of Medical Practice

This 1961 book presents the findings of an empirical study that explored the attitudes and behaviors of patients who had experience with more than one way of organizing medical practice, and thereby sought to suggest some of the ways in which both lay and professional social structure figure in the utilization of medical care. The data are used to derive a tentative conceptual framework that takes account of structural as well as cultural factors in understanding the behavior of doctors and patients. The net result is a set of ideas that suggest the nature of the medical system that lies outside the walls of the hospitals, in direct contact with the community.

Eliot Freidson, New York University, and Montefiore Hospital