Signing on for a two month part-time job at the Laguna Honda hospital in San Francisco, Dr. Victoria Sweet became mesmerized by the place and stayed for 20 years. As the last almshouse in the country, a facility charged with the extended care of those who have fallen on hard times, Dr. Sweet discovers a place where a different kind of medicine was practiced.
Laced with stories of patients and the struggles of changes in the health care system, Dr. Sweet’s book provides a surprisingly fascinating account that questions how health care is practiced in this country today. As she watches the shift from patient care to implementation of more and more management, she makes a case for what she calls “slow medicine”.  Medicine where time is spent listening to a patients’ concerns and symptoms – evaluating the entire person – rather than throwing multiple expensive tests their way. Medicine that spends more on clinic care by nurses and physicians instead of management.
Sound dry? It isn’t!  The San Francisco Chronicle writes:  “You might not expect a book about San Francisco’s most downtrodden patients to be a page-turner, but it is. With its colorful cast of characters battling the tide of history, God’s Hotel is a remarkable journey into the essence of medicine.â€
Join us, Monday, February 25 at 6 pm at the Oswego Public Library as our book club discusses “God’s Hotel”. Stop by to reserve your copy, or download it for reading on your e-reader. “God’s Hotel” is a “must read” for anyone in the health care profession from management, clinical or patient. The discussion is sure to be lively!