No one was turned away
Subtitle: the role of public hospitals in New York City since 1900
By: Sandra Opdycke.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1999
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
Subjects: Public hospitals -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century; Hospital care -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century; Multihospital systems -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century; Public welfare -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 20th century
Description: No One Was Turned Away is a book about the importance of public hospitals to New York City. At a time when less and less value seems to be placed on public institutions, argues author Sandra Opdycke, it is both useful and prudent to consider what this particular set of public institutions has meant to this particular city over the last hundred years, and to ponder what its loss might mean as well.

Opdycke suggests that if these public hospitals close or convert to private management - as is currently being discussed - then a vital element of the civic life of New York City will be irretrievably lost.

The story is told primarily through the history of Bellevue Hospital, the largest public hospital in the city and the oldest in the nation.

Following Bellevue through the twentieth century, Opdycke meticulously charts the fluctuating fortunes of the city's public hospital system and how medical technology, urban politics, changing immigration patterns, economic booms and busts, labor unions, health insurance, Medicaid, and managed care have interacted to shape both the social and professional environments of New York's public hospitals. Bellevue now faces financial and political pressures so acute that its very future is in doubt.

Opdycke's book maintains that public hospitals will be as essential in the future as they have been in the past. This is a thoughtful and well-written study that will appeal to anyone interested in the history of medicine, public policy, urban affairs, or the City of New York.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-235) and index.