Hospital: An Oral History of Cook County Hospital
These brief, first-person narratives by physicians and other, often international, staff members of Chicago's venerable, 87-year-old Cook County Hospital are recorded and introduced by freelance writer Lewis, a former assistant to Studs Terkel. Eloquently, she demonstrates how needs overwhelm capacity in America's large public hospitals, which "have become, in effect, a national health care system." In emergency, interns and residents practice "battlefield medicine," caring for the mostly minority victims of violence, accidents and social deprivation, with patients serving as "teaching materials." Most of the medical-service employees and patients depicted, from the head of the Pediatrics Trauma Center to a female security guard, share the same dedication to County and yearn for health care reform. A gripping report from the trenches, this is the author's debut book.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.