County

Life, Death, and Politics at Chicago’s Public Hospital

By: David A. Ansell MD

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

The amazing tale of County is the story of one of America's oldest and most unusual urban hospitals. From it's 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 healthcare 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" 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 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”, and 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.

David A. Ansell, MD., a Chicago-based physician and health activist, has been an internal-medicine physician since training at Cook County Hospital in the late 1970s, where he spent seventeen years. Now chief medical officer at Rush University Medical Center, he sees patients, teaches, volunteers as a doctor at a Chicago free clinic, and participates in medical missions to the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

©2011 David Ansell; Introduction 2011 by Quentin Young (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“When it comes to the stories of his patients, many of whom he cared for over decades, from clinic to hospital to funeral, Dr. Ansell soars…We cannot have too many of these stories in circulation, to bear witness, to inform and to inspire.” ( New York Times)

Very telling

A gross analysis and microscopic diagnosis of the cancer of politics of health care to the minorities living in America

A great view of County

I found the very well done. From having lived in Chicago and some understanding of County the book was a great read. David brought to light thinks I had no idea about.

Excellent, eye-opening!

Insightful glimpse into the difficulties of balancing health care and dwindling insurance coverage. 'Will open your eyes to what's going on in most major cities in the U.S.

Historic look at Chicago County Hospital

Helps the reader understand the inequality in medicine in the US and how other races and religions were mistreated. The narrator is OK, but several times he spoke so low that at top volume I could not understand hi..

Highly recommend

Intense. It is quite disturbing hearing some of these stories, but very good for the author to bring these to public attention. While Cook County Hospital has come a long way since the 80s, a lot of these problems still do exist there and other public hospitals. Thank you to the author and all the Cook County Hospital staff that have fought to provide better care and outcomes there over the years. This was very well-written and narrated: I really could picture the scene and feel the despair on the wards as the author described them. Great listen for medical and non-medical folks alike.

Thank you, Dr. Ansell.

As a white woman raised in rural VA with good health care throughout my life, I realize now that I failed to see the injustices outside of my small town life, specifically regarding race. My family did not have a lot of money but I did have access to good health care here in VA, even on Medicaid. This book leaves me wondering, even from Small Town, U.S.A., if there were racial injustices in medical care. I do not remember, nor did I hear of any, but I very well could have been oblivious to the fact. Plus, I was a white kid with a white family. People most likely would refrain from sharing that info with me. 1. I was a child when I had Medicaid and racial inequality was something I had never heard of at the time, and 2. I grew up around white people. I went to school with black people but my neighborhood and friends outside of school were white and it never occurred to us to have this discussion about our own hometown, even in high school and college. However, I also was not welcomed by the rich kids and did not have wealthy friends. My clique, albeit white, was lower middle class. This book intrigues me enough to open that chapter with my childhood friends and family to see if they paid attention to the racial inequality in our health care, quality, timeliness, ability to be seen, etc. My guess is that even in a small town, it existed; I'm only sorry that I failed to recognize it. Thanks for bringing this heartbreaking issue to light, Dr. Ansell and thank you for your service at County Hospital.

Good read

Liked the full picture of the politics and medical perspective and reader voice. Enjoyed it very Much

Very Accurate account

I was in nursing school a little before the dates in the book. I attended City #2 Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. Homer G. Phillips. His account of Cook County Hospital is very accurate of the time. I saw many of the same things. Politics were the same all over the country, I could not get into the schools in Michigan where I lived. I am African American, we were not admitted to the schools there. After graduation I worked at the City Hospital in Detroit. Private hospitals did not accept minorities unless they could produce an insurance card. The rooms in the hospitals were then segregated.

He is right on target.Listening was a flash back for me.

I would like to meet the author

Being a denizen of Chicago who now lives on the south side and having been a student at the Fantus outpatient clinic, I really connected with this story. It’s part autobiography, part clinical, part love story and part political activist novel. It’s a great read if you want to learn an important piece of Chicago’s history as well as a piece of the history of our national healthcare system.

I hope to see an addendum to the book.

Outstanding

Outstanding story of the history of Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Il. Not just a lesson in it's history but also a lesson in the Public Health Care System. It's a system that no matter how awful or beautiful the building is or the medical caretakers are, it's a system that does not work. Obama and his cronies should read this book before they shove their health care down our throats. The care at Cook Co. is the best IF you can get it and if you live long enough to get an appointment or make it through the hours or even months of waiting it takes to get seen in a Public Health Care System. Great lesson, great book, and Great Doctors at Cook Co. Hospital.