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Sunday, May 18, 2008

New book on Maimonides Medical Center Cancer Unit 



Drawing on her skills as interviewer, observer, and social critic, Salamon presents the story of modern medicine, uniquely viewed from the vantage point of those who make it run. She draws out the internal and external political machinations that exist between doctors and staff as well as between hospitaland community. And she grounds the science and emotion of medical drama in the financial realities of operating a huge, private institution that must contend with issues like adapting to the specific needs of immigrant groups that make up a large and growing portion of our society.

Salamon exposes struggles of both the profound and humdrum variety. There are bitter internal feuds, warm personal connections, comedy, egoism, greed, love, and loss. There are rabbinic edicts to contend with as well as imams and herbalists and local politicians. There are system foul-ups that keep blood test results from being delivered on time, careless record keepers, shortages of everything except forms to fill, recalcitrant and greedy insurance reimbursement systems, and the surprising difficulty of getting doctors to wash their hands.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hospital/Julie-Salamon/e/9781594201714/?itm=1

Comments:
I heard her on the Joan Hamburg show last week and she really has the whole story in a nutshell. Quite interesting.

 

I saw Julie Salamon on New York 1 a week ago. I bought the book and will read it to learn exactly what it is that the hospital says publicly about our community.

On the TV interview, Salamon quoted Pam Brier as saying that only 25 per cent of the patients at Maimonides come from the Orthodox community.

I find this figure suspicious and am interested in what else is in the book.

Is anyone else reading it?

 

One other note, the book is on the entire Maimonides, not merely the cancer unit.

 

It is true, only about 25-30% of patients at Maimonides are from our community.

 

she was tonight on the john batchelor show on wabc it was a very interesting interview

 

I am very interested in reading the book, because we spent a few months in this hospital with a loved one , and we feel we can write a book about this place, we had a horrific experience, the lack of care from the nursing staff, the mismangement, one does not know from the other, scans, tests procedures were ordered with out every anyone knowing who ordered it, surgery was scheduled for 8:am they only got to pick up the patient at 8:30 pm, meaning no food or anything to drink for 2 days, the best of all when you heard the nurses banging away, crushing pills with ensure cans, unbelievable, pill crushers cost about $1.50, I heard an old lady yell "who is it? she thought they were banging on her door.... what a shame to have such an institution in the midst of our community......

 

I had a very similar experience in this hospitable too. I had a baby this winter there and i had an awful experience with them. I waited 7 hours after delivery till i was transfered upstairs to my room (they didn't have enough rooms..omg!)that means i didn't see my baby just for a few minutes and then i saw her seven hours later, i couldn't nurse her either. and then the nurses in the maternity ward were downright nasty, such chutzpah you cant even imagine. They were soo loud at night such a racket you could have thought your in a bar not in a hospitable. i had a awful time there. btw, the staff in the delivery area was ok, thank god. but i wouldn't go there ever again.

 

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