Paula G. (Paulathegreat) reviewed God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine on + 145 more book reviews
Victoria Sweet was a young doctor when she first came to work at Leguna Honda Hospital (LHH) in San Francisco. LHH was the last working almshouse in the country. It had been built and maintained over the centuries to provide health care to the poor and the destitute.
LHH was a different kind of hospital than the bigger more modern hospitals that surrounded it. At LHH, a new doctor could encounter diseases that they would not see any place else in the first world. It was flexible enough to hire part time doctors and old fashioned enough to give those doctors the time to personally work with all of their patients. What drew Dr. S. was the flexibility to study while she worked. She planned to work for 2 months, but would choose to stay for 20 years.
One of the things that drew Dr. S's interest was the writings of Hidegard of Bingen, a medieval nun who wrote a comprehensive medical guide for other medieval keepers of almshouses. Her work is inelegant and definitely dated, but it starts Dr. S on a quest to understand how medicine has been practiced and is being practiced now. It also gives her a second perspective on some of her tougher cases; and in a couple cases the insight to save lives.
This book is also about the changes in modern medicine:Â the efficiency experts, the pill pushing as opposed to seeing the diseases, the politics.Â
I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It is well written and interesting. Though I don't necessarily go everyplace that Dr. S. goes with this information it is worth thinking about and discussing.
LHH was a different kind of hospital than the bigger more modern hospitals that surrounded it. At LHH, a new doctor could encounter diseases that they would not see any place else in the first world. It was flexible enough to hire part time doctors and old fashioned enough to give those doctors the time to personally work with all of their patients. What drew Dr. S. was the flexibility to study while she worked. She planned to work for 2 months, but would choose to stay for 20 years.
One of the things that drew Dr. S's interest was the writings of Hidegard of Bingen, a medieval nun who wrote a comprehensive medical guide for other medieval keepers of almshouses. Her work is inelegant and definitely dated, but it starts Dr. S on a quest to understand how medicine has been practiced and is being practiced now. It also gives her a second perspective on some of her tougher cases; and in a couple cases the insight to save lives.
This book is also about the changes in modern medicine:Â the efficiency experts, the pill pushing as opposed to seeing the diseases, the politics.Â
I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It is well written and interesting. Though I don't necessarily go everyplace that Dr. S. goes with this information it is worth thinking about and discussing.
