Systemic failure and the totalization of public hospitals: a theoretical and conceptual synthesis of health governance in Latin America

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The public hospital in Latin America is currently undergoing a sociological metamorphosis driven by chronic systemic failure. This article posits that, contrary to its design, the hospital frequently functions as a total institution by default—a space defined by surveillance, bureaucratic rationing, and the mortification of the self. Through a theoretical and conceptual synthesis grounded in a systematic documentary analysis of 31 primary units, this study contrasts the external narrative of performative governmental modernization with the internal reality of structural collapse. Integrating Goffman’s analytical heuristic with the framework of street-level bureaucracy, we analyze the “double erosion” of quality of life affecting both the workforce—manifesting in epidemic rates of burnout syndrome—and the patient population, who suffer systematic dehumanization. The findings reveal that staff depersonalization is a survival mechanism necessitated by resource scarcity, inadvertently causing the objectification of the patient. While the persistence of this crisis is maintained by a structural opacity that obscures the true diagnosis of the sector, counterexamples of primary care resilience demonstrate this totalization is not deterministic. We conclude that de-totalization requires not only meeting a GDP investment target but also a fundamental restructuring of the power dynamics within the clinical encounter.