County: Life, Death, and Politics at Chicago's Public Hospital

Ansell MD Mph, David A

ISBN 10: 145512608X ISBN 13: 9781455126088

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2013

Synopsis

The amazing tale of "County" is the story of one of America's oldest and most unusual urban hospitals. From its inception as a "poor house" dispensing free medical care to indigents, Chicago's Cook County Hospital has been both a renowned teaching hospital and the health-care provider of last resort for the city's uninsured. County covers more than thirty years of its history, from the late 1970s, when the author began his internship, to the "final rounds," when the enormous, iconic Victorian hospital building was replaced and hundreds of former trainees gathered to bid it an emotional farewell. Ansell writes of the hundreds of doctors who went through the rigorous training process with him, sharing his vision of saving the world and of resurrecting a hospital on the verge of closing. County is about people, from Ansell's mentors, including the legendary social justice activist Quentin Young, to the multitude of patients he and County's medical staff labored to diagnose and heal. It is a story about politics, from contentious union strikes to battles against "patient dumping," and about public health, depicting the AIDS crisis and the opening of County's HIV/AIDS clinic, the first in the city. Finally, it is about a young man's medical education in urban America, a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of race, segregation, and poverty.

About this title

Book Description:

Named by the Wall Street Journal as one of the five best health books of 2011!

County is the amazing tale of one of America’s oldest and most unusual urban public hospitals. From its inception as a “poor house” dispensing free medical care to indigents, Chicago’s Cook County Hospital has been both a renowned teaching hospital and the health care provider of last resort for the city’s uninsured. County covers more than thirty years of its history, beginning in the late 1970s when the author began his internship, to the “final rounds” in 2002, when hundreds of former trainees and personnel, many of whom shared Ansell's vision of resurrecting a hospital in critical condition, gathered to bid the  iconic Victorian hospital building an emotional farewell before it was closed to make way for a new facility.County is about people--from Ansell’s mentors, including the legendary Quentin Young, to the multitude of patients whom he and County’s medical staff labored to diagnose and heal. It is a story about politics; from contentious union strikes, to battles against “patient dumping.” Most importantly, it chronicles the battles for instigating new programs that would help to prevent, rather than just treat, serious illnesses, including the opening of County’s HIV/AIDS clinic (the first in the city), as well as an early-detection breast cancer screening program. Finally, it is about an idealistic young man’s medical education in urban America,     a coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of race, segregation, and poverty.

About the Author:

David A. Ansell, MD, MPH, is a Chicago-based physician and health activist. He has been an internal medicine physician since training at Cook County Hospital in the late 1970s where he spent seventeen years holding a number of positions including chief of general medicine / primary care. After leaving County, he spent ten years as chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital located in one of the poorest communities in Chicago. Now chief medical officer at Rush University Medical Center, he also sees patients and teaches. Since coming to Chicago to train at Cook County Hospital, he has dedicated his career to fighting health inequity by building programs to address and eliminate these disparities. His work with others has led to the end of "patient dumping" in the United States, one of the first cancer screening programs in America aimed at addressing the Black: White breast cancer mortality disparity, the creation of the most prominent health disparity research and intervention center in Chicago, and the creation of the Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Taskforce, a not-for-profit dedicated to the elimination of breast cancer mortality disparity. In his spare time he reads, gardens, and exercises. He volunteers as a doctor at a Chicago free clinic and has participated in ongoing medical missions to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. He is married to a doctor and has two children.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 145512608X
• ISBN 13: 9781455126088
• Binding: Audio CD