Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God andDiversity on Steroids | 
 enlarge | Author: Julie Salamon
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Category: Book
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $14.00
You Save: $11.95 (46%)
New (34) Used (8) from $13.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 1503
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4
ISBN: 1594201714
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.110974723
EAN: 9781594201714
ASIN: 1594201714
Publication Date: May 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New in new dust jacket; first printing.
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| • | Audio CD - Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids | | • | Audio CD - Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids | | • | Audio Download - Hospital (Unabridged) | | • | Kindle Edition - Hospital | | • | Audio CD - Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids |
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Product Description
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 groundwhat happens between doctors and patientsbut 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 Paysonchairman of the board at Maimonides and ex-Time-Warner vice chairmanputs it: Hospitals have a lot in common with the movie business. Youve got your talent, entrepreneurs, ambition, ego stroking, the business versus the creative part. The big difference is that in the hospital you dont get second takes. Movies are make-believe. This is real life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, . . . Who Cares? July 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Goes on and on with background details of an endless parade of characters - I really don't know what useful point is served by the book, other than I would hate to work anywhere with a confusing multitude of languages and cultures.
 Hospitals are like this - what should you expect ? July 14, 2008
Hospital is a true story: Julie Salomon spent a year being a pest around the hospital, talking to everybody and everyone, no restrictions besides not revealing patient names. She did a good job, but to anyone that has been working at hospitals, no big news: HMOs are really a pain, red tape increases and increases, physicians take home money is decreasing, personalities clash and some egos can't go inside the hospital, because they are bigger than the biggest door...Some hospitals are losing patients, patients are admited for less and less time and this is not always in their best interests. This is a good book to read if you are a hospital administrator or a young physician, still full of ideals. Mostly of those ideals will perish after fellowship anyway...
 A fabulous book June 8, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is a fabulous book. It is easy to forget that it is not fiction; the characters and the situation and setting are fascinating and their depth and complexities so well portrayed. The story itself is at once inspiring, depressing, hopeful and overwhelming. Maimonides Hospital is unique, but really this book is about every medical practice. Over and over again I felt an odd sense that this was about my practice in a small Maine town... a practice that is homogenous in every way that is easily described in demographics, but as diverse as every face and family and experience. Ms. Salamon gets it exactly right: that health care is emotional and spiritual and about human dynamics, both beautiful and ugly. Her writing of the Maimonides story so perfectly shows how nothing is simple in health care and yet it really is all very simple. Because this book truly is about humankind and our survival together, it is certainly a great read for anyone, not just readers in the medical field. (But a must read for everyone in the medical field!) (Jennifer Oddleifson)
How Hospitals Really Work June 8, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Most of us see hospitals only from a patient's bedside or though overheated TV medi-dramas. But if you want to know how these complex health care machines really work, pick up Julie Salamon's Hospital. It is a sometimes uplifiting, sometimes frightening, look at how a combustible mixture of skill, ego, money, and compassion somehow turns into good medical care.
Salamon, who spent a year roaming both the corporate offices and the patient floors of Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, nails it. In some ways, this place could only happen in New York, but in others, it is just like every other hospital in America. Salamon, a keen observer and writer, tells the story of Maimonides through the eyes of an unforgettable cast of characters. If you want to know what our crazy health care system means for those in the trenches, including the patients, read Hospital.
How to be a better doctor June 1, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"Hospital" is an extraordinary accomplishment. Salamon's year at Maimonides Hospital illuminates Brooklyn, and clarifies everything. Readers will enjoy a privileged journey which inspires hope while never shrinking from the death which modern medicine cannot, and should not, defeat.
Speaking personally, every doctor will be a better doctor after they read this book.
Robert L. Cohen, MD
New York, NY
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