Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God, and Diversity on Steroids

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)

Usually when I hear someone mention health care, my eyes tend to glaze over. It's an issue that affects us all, but it's not always an interesting one. This book changed my mind about that. It offers a glimpse into the human side of health care by portraying an array of doctors, nurses, patients, administrators, and community leaders. Salamon thoroughly explains the interactions and conflicting interests of each group. She shines light on the things that are broken about health care in America and also reveals what is succeeding. Not only do I feel that I learned a great deal from reading this book, but I also found it quite entertaining. The rivalries, culture clashes, and money woes made for a satisfying read. If you've ever been to a hospital, it would be worth your time to read Hospital.

I purchased this book for my children to give to their father on Father's Day. He trained at Maimonides when we were newlyweds and I thought he would enjoy receiving it from his sons who were born there in Brooklyn. I began to glance through it and I was compelled to cancel my appointments and read it completely. Wow, the memories came flooding back to me. In the early and mid eighties, we spent a great deal of time interacting with a group of people who were foreign to me in both physical and spiritual identity. The Orthodox Jewish community provides an integral part of her story and it is fascinating. Like the author, I am from Ohio. But, unlike Ms Salamon, I had no idea who Maimonides was and why would he have a hospital in Brooklyn named for him? It was a life-altering experience for me to learn the differences between various New York cultures and and this is the insight Ms Salamon provides throughout this book. The reader becomes enthralled with the personalities of the physicians, administrators and staff and Ms Salamon is concise and accurate in recalling events that establish their identities. However, it is the wrenching descriptions of actual procedures as well as the reactions of young and terminally ill patients that keeps this book from becoming another hospital tell-all. I am very impressed with this book and I greatly anticipate reading her earlier books and essays.

That Maimonides Medical Center granted this writer such unfettered access to the institution is indeed astonishing, and Salamon does not squander the opportunity. What she finds is a health care pressure cooker: Ludicrous insurance protocols, cultural divides among patients and an exhausted staff prone to ego and petty feuds, and sometimes profound compassion. But General Hospital melodrama the book is not. What I found instead was an illuminating portrayal of our broken health care system, without the gross oversimplification that presidential political campaigns are apt to use in endless sound bytes. Salamon's prose is at its best when she documents the experience of Maimonides cancer patients--real people in pain, often lacking insurance and citizenship, praying for miracles and avoiding the awful truth as best they can. Salamon thankfully avoids turning these tragic stories into overwrought narrative thread. Her voice is simple and frank, and therefore irresistible. A powerful work.

Ok so maybe I am a little biased because I actually work at the hospital where this book was conceived and written. Seriously though, Ms. Salamon has has manged somehow to give an overview of Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn that is both accurate and wonderfully descriptive. She has succesfully captured the flavour of Brooklyn and Maimonides in an entertaining yet authentic way. This is not one of those PR stunts to try make Maimonides famous and rich, rather it is a soul searching account of the most horrendous and uplifting experiences that go hand in hand when an urban hospital meets multiple cultures. At the end of the day it is a book about human emotions and human deficiencies. Ego and humility, arrogance and compassion mixed with a healthy dose of back stabbing and genuine love for humanity. Highly recomended.