What do you think?
Rate this book
Hospital: an oral history of cook county hospital
Using Chicago's Cook County Hospital as a microcosm of the human and social problems of America, a long-time assistant to Studs Terkel learns how doctors, staff, and patients deal with victims of violence, incurable disease, and racial tensions. Reprint.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
4 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 31, 2018
Hospital, written in 1994, contains over 60 interviews conducted throughout 1993 with the various people surrounding Cook County Hospital. (*Now called John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County)
These 60 interviews are with doctors, nurses, occasional non-medical staff, and even patients. One population that is absent, however, is the administration. We have ex-medical directors, but we don't have any board of directors. I feel that their inclusion would help flesh out the story that many of the interviewees painted when they talk about administration and direction. The interviews are roughly grouped around topics, such as "Burn" and "Lives".
One thing to note about this book is that after the introduction by the author the rest of the book only contains the interviews. These interviews do not have the author's questions, just what the interviewee said. You find common themes in some interviews when they talk about topics, such as the Clinton healthcare reform. These commonalities make you wonder if she asks that question to every person, or does every person really care about it and want to bring it up.
I think the interviews themselves are fairly interesting. It is eye-opening to get so many perspectives and viewpoints. It is also eye-opening to hear what the patient population had to go through and what the staff had to see on a daily basis. Don't forget the amount of work the residents had to do compared to current practices (80 hour limits and others). Not to mention the staffing problems with nurses, transporters, etc.. and the pharmacy problems. Crazy by today's standards, at least where I have worked at.
One thing I would have really loved to see were a few pictures. A oral history is great, but putting a face to a name would have been even greater. Heck, even a picture of the actual hospital would have been nice.
One thing I really liked was hearing about the devout loyalty to the hospital. They took in patients when nobody else wanted them, and did a pretty good job for the resources they had too.
I would recommend this book to citizens of Chicago and medical workers interested in the history of public hospitals, specifically 'County'. I think those born before the 80's or 70's will benefit even more due to knowledge of the time period (1993) when the book was written.
These 60 interviews are with doctors, nurses, occasional non-medical staff, and even patients. One population that is absent, however, is the administration. We have ex-medical directors, but we don't have any board of directors. I feel that their inclusion would help flesh out the story that many of the interviewees painted when they talk about administration and direction. The interviews are roughly grouped around topics, such as "Burn" and "Lives".
One thing to note about this book is that after the introduction by the author the rest of the book only contains the interviews. These interviews do not have the author's questions, just what the interviewee said. You find common themes in some interviews when they talk about topics, such as the Clinton healthcare reform. These commonalities make you wonder if she asks that question to every person, or does every person really care about it and want to bring it up.
I think the interviews themselves are fairly interesting. It is eye-opening to get so many perspectives and viewpoints. It is also eye-opening to hear what the patient population had to go through and what the staff had to see on a daily basis. Don't forget the amount of work the residents had to do compared to current practices (80 hour limits and others). Not to mention the staffing problems with nurses, transporters, etc.. and the pharmacy problems. Crazy by today's standards, at least where I have worked at.
One thing I would have really loved to see were a few pictures. A oral history is great, but putting a face to a name would have been even greater. Heck, even a picture of the actual hospital would have been nice.
One thing I really liked was hearing about the devout loyalty to the hospital. They took in patients when nobody else wanted them, and did a pretty good job for the resources they had too.
I would recommend this book to citizens of Chicago and medical workers interested in the history of public hospitals, specifically 'County'. I think those born before the 80's or 70's will benefit even more due to knowledge of the time period (1993) when the book was written.
June 3, 2015
Before you say another word about healthcare reform (or more accurately, health insurance reform), read this book.
This book contains interviews with doctors, patients, and support staff from Cook County Hospital in the mid 90's. I work in healthcare now, and it gave me a lot to think about...including reviewing my own ideas on caring for the sick poor, under/uninsured persons, etc.
I certainly didn't agree with every opinion in the book but, every interview gave me pause and caused me to dig deeper and think more broadly about how we deliver healthcare to marginalized populations.
I still think healthcare should be a right, I still think universal health insurance coverage is the best way to insure that we flip the medical model from 80% treatment focused to 80% prevention focused (saving far more $$ in the long run), and I still think that the insurance industries will never allow universal coverage.
There's no profit in peace, and there's no profit in healthy patients.
This book contains interviews with doctors, patients, and support staff from Cook County Hospital in the mid 90's. I work in healthcare now, and it gave me a lot to think about...including reviewing my own ideas on caring for the sick poor, under/uninsured persons, etc.
I certainly didn't agree with every opinion in the book but, every interview gave me pause and caused me to dig deeper and think more broadly about how we deliver healthcare to marginalized populations.
I still think healthcare should be a right, I still think universal health insurance coverage is the best way to insure that we flip the medical model from 80% treatment focused to 80% prevention focused (saving far more $$ in the long run), and I still think that the insurance industries will never allow universal coverage.
There's no profit in peace, and there's no profit in healthy patients.
September 6, 2011
An excellent account of life at Chicago's most important hospital. I live blocks away from County; I work in the medical field, and know people who work with and at County. I still learned things from this book that I never knew. I came away with a sense of admiration for all the workers at County, from administrators right through to housekeepers and transporters. A group of people with their eyes on the heart of good medical care--taking care of the patient with the resources at hand, in spite of poverty, politics and social discord. This book is good medicine.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews