By following the struggle for survival of one small-town hospital, and the patients who walk, or are carried, through its doors, The Hospital takes readers into the world of the American medical industry in a way no book has done before. Americans are dying sooner, and living in poorer health. Alexander argues that no plan will solve America's health crisis until the deeper causes of that crisis are addressed.
The business of sickness is perverse. In too many instances, medical interventions are ineffective Band-Aids. Other factors, like where you stand in the social, racial and economic pecking order — and what ZIP code you were born in — determine far more about your health ... In The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town, Brian Alexander shares this reality from the perch of a struggling rural hospital, known to its Bryan, Ohio, community as the 'Band-Aid Station' ... Reporting over a period of two years, which only ended this past August, Alexander went into exam rooms, patients’ homes and pathology labs, and rode along with ambulance crews. He provides a deep investigative account that chronicles the staff of nurses, doctors, technicians and administrators trying to keep the patients of northwest Ohio alive ... The Hospital sometimes reads like postapocalyptic science fiction ... By the end of The Hospital, you’ll be making signs to carry at the next Medicare for All march.
A superb account of a small-town hospital whose first priority is delivering high-quality medical care ... In this eye-opening investigative study, journalist Alexander takes us to Bryan, Ohio ... The author offers vivid portraits of a dozen individuals ... A deeply insightful and disheartening portrait of America’s diseased health care system.
Journalist Alexander (Glass House) delivers an anguished and incisive look at the struggles of an independent community hospital in northwestern Ohio ... Alternating boardroom politics and financial details with heartrending stories of uninsured and disadvantaged patients, Alexander documents CEO Phil Ennen’s desperate efforts to keep Community Hospitals and Wellness Centers of Bryan, Ohio, solvent without lowering standards of care ... Alexander’s in-depth research also makes clear why CHWC and hospitals like it have struggled to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. This wrenching account brilliantly diagnoses the flaws in America’s healthcare system.
