For more than 250 years New Orleans' Charity Hospital has struggled to serve the city's indigent ill, and in so doing has become an institution steeped in Louisiana history and politics. In this fascinating new book John Salvaggio traces the colorful history of Charity Hospital from the early days of French colonial medicine through the Spanish period, the early American years, the volatile Huey Long and World War II eras, and the modern postwar period.Established in 1736, with the legacy of a compassionate French ship builder, Charity Hospital has weathered many storms to maintain its status as the oldest continually operating hospital in the United States. It has withstood the transfer of Louisiana territory from the French to the Spanish and survived devastating hurricanes and a fire. The institution has also endured the stormy beginnings of Louisiana statehood, the hardships of the Civil War, and more recently, the stresses of caring for an ever-expanding patient load. Throughout much of its history, Charity Hospital has encountered political squabbles, patronage problems, and financial woes. As a new century approaches, the hospital finds its future threatened by inadequate funding and the crumbling of its physical facilities.Despite many setbacks, Charity Hospital has accomplished much in its history. Salvaggio presents a summary of the many medical procedures, diagnostic techniques, and therapeutic innovations that have been introduced at the "Big Free," as the hospital is popularly known. He also provides previously unchronicled information on the hospital's history during the twentieth century, writing about political infighting during the governorship of Huey P. Long, construction of a new hospital building in the 1930s, integration of the hospital in the 1960s, its relationships with the medical schools of Louisiana State University and Tulane University, and the current frustrating attempts to adequately staff the institution.Interviews with many of Charity's past directors and others associated with the hospital, as well as lively anecdotes from the author's own experience, bring the hospital's history to life and provide valuable insight into the institution's inner workings. These reminiscences, coupled with Salvaggio's depiction of Charity's past, present, and now questionable future, make this a fascinating and informative work on an important hospital of the South.

"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

First went the power. Then came the water, and for five days, the country's oldest hospital was under siege. The never-before-told story of the heroic doctors, nurses, and patients who fought to survive Hurricane Katrina at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. This book traces a remarkable five-day transformation of an infirm institution, caught in a sea of death and indifference, into an island of care and tenderness. The hour-by-hour recreation of this hospital's final days is one of the most grievous and heroic stories in American history. Jim Carrier, who moved to New Orleans 28 days before Katrina (and lost his home), recreates with emotional and poignant detail the rich, sad and uplifting saga of Charity Hospital.

This book is the first definitive, descriptive history of the Charity Hospital System of Louisiana, a story of how poverty, politics, public health, public interest, race, gender, and class, shaped the long history of one of the most storied public healthcare systems in the state and nation, to be published in a single volume. Over a period of more than 270 years, a total of ten charity hospitals were established in different venues of the state and evolved into one of the most celebrated public healthcare systems in the country.

IPPY Silver Award Winner - Current Events. IBPA Ben Franklin Silver Award Winner - Current Events. Most Americans have historically viewed the nation's great public hospitals as refuges of last resort for poor and uninsured people. But these iconic instit

The first monograph on Islamic hospitals, this volume examines their origins, development, architecture, social roles, and connections to non-Islamic institutions.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The award-winning book that inspired an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ • A landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina—and the suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice—from a Pulitzer Prize–winning physician and reporter “An amazing tale, as inexorable as a Greek tragedy and as gripping as a whodunit.”—Dallas Morning News After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting by Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink, unspools the mystery, bringing us inside a hospital fighting for its life and into the most charged questions in health care: which patients should be prioritized, and can health care professionals ever be excused for hastening death? Transforming our understanding of human nature in crisis, Five Days at Memorial exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals how ill-prepared we are for large-scale disasters—and how we can do better. ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Entertainment Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star WINNER: National Book Critics Circle Award, J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Ridenhour Book Prize, American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award, National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Award