Hospital : an Oral History of Cook County Hospital / [Compiled By] Sydney Lewis ; Foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich

Using Chicago's Cook County Hospital as a microcosm of the human and social problems in America, a long-time assistant to Studs Terkel learns how doctors, staff, and patients deal with victims of violence, incurable diseases, and racial tensions.

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.

In her debut, Studs Terkel prot‚g‚e Lewis fumbles an attempt to create a portrait of Chicago's Cook County Hospital by recording the voices of its staff and a few patients. Subtitle notwithstanding, this is not truly the history of an institution that was established in the 19th century: Only a handful of individuals have recollections going back even to the 1940s and 1950s, and inner-city social problems get as much attention as the hospital itself. A portrait of sorts does emerge from Lewis's selections, all of which were recorded in 1993, and it is both comforting and horrifying. Many of the employees who were interviewed--doctors, nurses, administrators, housekeepers, elevator operators, etc.--care deeply about Cook County, and they work hard at their jobs, but the stories they tell reveal shortages and shabby physical conditions, mistakes and oversights by harried caregivers, and interminable waits by patients. Outside the hospital lurk poverty, homelessness, and increasing violence, which affect everything the staff tries to do about the multiple chronic illnesses, infectious diseases, and trauma that bring patients to Cook County's doors. Lewis's questions are not included, but she clearly sought her interviewees' thoughts on health care reform and the hospital's future. A single-payer plan of some kind is the favorite of those who have given thought to reform, and the medical staff speak hopefully of increasing community outreach through outpatient clinics that would stress prevention and primary care. Buried here is a picture of a system in crisis struggling to find its way, but the task of wading through more than 60 seemingly unedited and often redundant transcripts is a tedious one. A mountain of raw material out of which a useful book could have been shaped. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In 62 interviews, Lewis presents a fascinating picture of one of the largest U.S. public hospitals during the past 50 years. She draws on a wide range of informants, from a transporter and an elevator operator to a resident and the chairman of a department. Skills derived from previous work with Studs Terkel help Lewis bring out the personal, social, political, and religious views of her subjects. Intense feeling about the hospital--whether of love, respect, frustration, or even hatred--binds the diverse informants together. A nurse sums up the pervasive attitude: "I like the freedom, to do things for patients and really be where you're needed." Karl Meyer, Jim Haughton, and Quentin Young--the most forceful and controversial hospital leaders during the period covered--receive both favorable and unfavorable comments. The hospital itself--provider of health care for the poor and underserved, capable of arousing intense loyalty among its patients, and prized as one of the best sources of postgraduate medical education--is, however, the star of the book. William Beatty

For this oral history, Lewis, a longtime assistant to Studs Terkel, has collected interviews of 62 doctors, administrators, former patients, and staff members at all levels of Chicago's only public hospital. An 80-year-old "medical museum" with a reputation for innovative programming, Cook County Hospital has over 6000 employees and a clientele drawn from Chicago's poorest and most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Stories of egregious political corruption and neglect, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, and heartrending contemporary tragedies of urban violence and child abuse are balanced with other anecdotes of devotion and heroism. Despite its almost battlefield conditions, "County" clearly attracts the loyalty of remarkable people who are energized by the opportunity to make a difference in one of the country's most challenging medical environments. This book both honors these individuals and critiques the healthcare and political environments in which they practice. An excellent acquisition for most libraries.
Kathy Arsenault, Univ. of South Florida, St. Petersburg
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.