[The process of medicalization in Catalonian hospitals: the case of the Pío Hospital de Valls].

Using a study of the process of medicalization at the Hospital del Valls in Tarragona as a starting point, we review some idiosyncratic aspects of hospital management in Catalonia, with special reference to the emergence of the domestic hospital, and the complex relationships between the municipality, the hospitalary religious orders and national and regional public powers.