A bestselling author and award winning journalist follows
a year in the life of a big urban hospital, painting a
revealing portrait of how medical care is delivered in
America today
Most people agree that there are
complicated issues at play in the delivery of health care
today, but those issues may not always be what we think they
are. In 2005, Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York,
unveiled a new state-of-theart, multimillion-dollar cancer
center. Determined to understand the whole spectrum of
factors that determine what kind of medical care people
receive in this country, bestselling author Julie Salamon
spent one year tracking the progress of the center and
getting to know the characters who make the hospital run.
Located in a community where sixty-seven different languages
are spoken, Maimonides is a case study for the particular
kinds of concerns that arise in institutions that serve an
increasingly multicultural American demographic. Granted an
astonishing “warts and all” level of access by the hospital
higher-ups, Salamon followed the doctors, patients,
administrators, nurses, ambulance drivers, cooks, and
cleaning staff. She explored not just the action on the
ground—what happens between doctors and patients—but also
the financial, ethical, technological, sociological, and
cultural matters that the hospital community encounters
every day.
Drawing on her skills as interviewer,
observer, and social critic, Salamon presents the story of
modern medicine, uniquely viewed from the vantage point of
those who make it run. She draws out the internal and
external political machinations that exist between doctors
and staff as well as between hospital and community. And she
grounds the science and emotion of medical drama in the
financial realities of operating a huge, private institution
that must contend with issues like adapting to the specific
needs of immigrant groups that make up a large and growing
portion of our society.
Salamon exposes struggles of
both the profound and humdrum variety. There are bitter
internal feuds, warm personal connections, comedy, egoism,
greed, love, and loss. There are rabbinic edicts to contend
with as well as imams and herbalists and local politicians.
There are system foul-ups that keep blood test results from
being delivered on time, careless record keepers, shortages
of everything except forms to fill, recalcitrant and greedy
insurance reimbursement systems, and the surprising
difficulty of getting doctors to wash their hands.
This is the dynamic universe of small and large concerns and
personalities that, taken together, determine the nature of
our care and assume the utmost importance. As Martin
Payson—chairman of the board at Maimonides and
ex-Time-Warner vice chairman—puts it: “Hospitals have a lot
in common with the movie business. You’ve got your talent,
entrepreneurs, ambition, ego stroking, the business versus
the creative part. The big difference is that in the
hospital you don’t get second takes. Movies are
make-believe. This is real life.”
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy