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An intimate portrait of a struggling small-town hospital and its patients rips the away the façade hiding the forces behind America’s growing health crises.
The Hospital takes readers into the world of American sickness in a way no book has done before. Americans are dying sooner, and living in poorer health. By immersing the reader in the fight of one hospital to continue serving its community, and the fight of patients who walk, or are carried, through its doors to survive the economic and political forces arrayed against them, Alexander strips away manufactured complexity and wonky debates to expose the human costs of the war being waged on Americans by the medical industry, by politicians, by big business.
Bryan, Ohio’s hospital is losing money, making it vulnerable to big health systems seeking domination. Phil Ennen, the hospital’s CEO, has been campaigning to preserve its independence. Meanwhile, Bryan, a town of 8,500 people in Ohio’s northwest corner, is still trying to recover from the Great Recession. As local leaders struggle to address the town’s problems, and the hospital fights for its life amid a rapidly consolidating medical and hospital industry, a 39-year-old diabetic literally fights for his limbs, a 55-year-old contractor lies dying in the emergency room, and a pastor prays his flock will see better days and better health.
Americans have become victims of a “system” they don’t understand. By explaining how we got here, how powerful the system stacked against them has become, and why it nearly collapsed when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, The Hospital offers a bracing, clarifying look at America’s century-old health crises.
Named one of “Ten Books to Read in March” — Washington Post
Named top ten books of 2021 – Chicago Tribune
Best Books of 2021 – New York Post
Best Books of 2021 – Dayton Daily News
Notable Books of 2021 – American Library Association
“Alexander nimbly and grippingly translates the byzantine world of American health care into a real-life narrative with people you come to care about…. By the end of The Hospital, you’ll be making signs to carry at the next Medicare for All march. With the stories of these characters — from patients and doctors to the C.E.O. — etched in your heart, Alexander will make you see that a healthier America will only be realized when we begin to look beyond the patients in front of us and prescribe solutions that lift people out of poverty, eliminate inequities and respect the dignity of all.”
—Mona Hanna-Attisha, The New York Times
“Alexander’s book captures the battle for the soul and well-being of Americans. The question readers must ask is, where do we go from here?”
—Toledo City Paper
The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town by Brian Alexander. This small Ohio community hospital, struggling to continue, reveals, in the hands of master narrator, Alexander, the sickness, greed, rapacity, and cruelty of the so-called health industry. He exposes “the human cost of the war being waged on Americans by the medical industry, politicians, and big businesses.”
—Ralph Nader
“This is why Brian Alexander’s newly released The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town is so vital. Alexander has dug to the roots to present a richly researched, highly contextualized, deeply compelling narrative…. Alexander shows that we don’t have a problem with health care. We have a problem with society.”
—John Warner, Chicago Tribune
“America is broken, but sometimes it takes looking at the smallest shattered pieces to realize how broken. That is the sad lesson at the core of Brian Alexander’s The Hospital.”
—Stephen Rodrick, Rolling Stone
“Alexander also brings to his writing a deep understanding of the larger economic, political, and social trends that are slowly crushing the lives of the people he met in Bryan, and of people like them all over this country. In his telling, Bryan becomes a microcosm of American sickness in all its dimensions…. Upon completing this book, it occurred to me that it would be fitting to include it in a time capsule, so future generations might learn just how the promise of American life faded on our watch.”
—Phillip Longman, Washington Monthly
—Ohio Capital Journal
“Brian Alexander’s The Hospital is a heart-rending and unforgettable real-time journalistic deep dive. With the Affordable Care Act at the center of our national debate, I can’t think of a more timely book. The doctors, nurses and medical technicians in these pages are front-line heroes. Highly recommended!”
—Douglas Brinkley, Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast
“This wrenching account brilliantly diagnoses the flaws in America’s healthcare system.”
—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)
“With his signature gut-punching prose, Alexander breaks our hearts as he opens our eyes to America’s deep-rooted sickness and despair by immersing us in the lives of a small town hospital and the people it serves. “
—Beth Macy, bestselling author of Dopesick
“The time Alexander spent embedded in the community gives continuity and depth to the stories of the individuals he connected with and puts a human face on broader issues of social inequality. This expertly reported account will resonate and find a wide audience.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“Alexander’s scorching reportage provides a distressing, infuriating picture of health care delivery and highlights the heroic fight of a little hospital and humble hamlet to stay vital.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“In this clear-eyed biography of a community hospital, Brian Alexander offers a powerful indictment of the American health care system. The Hospital will break your heart.”
—Andrea Pitzer, author of One Long Night
Named one of “Five Books Not to Miss”
—USA Today
“The Hospital shows us the deep connections between health care, the economy, and people’s lives. Brian Alexander masterfully weaves national history and events into the story of a small local hospital and its community. This book is devastating, gripping, and beautiful. ”
—Beatrix Hoffman, Professor of History, Northern Illinois University and author of Health Care for Some
“A superb account of a small-town hospital… A deeply insightful and disheartening portrait of America’s diseased health care system.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“The Hospital is a stunning achievement — closely observed, deeply compassionate and beautifully written. What “The Wire” did for the Baltimore drug trade, The Hospital does for the business of healthcare in a struggling Rust Belt community.”
—Carl Elliott, Professor in the Center for Bioethics and the Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, author of White Coat, Black Hat: Adventures on the Dark Side of Medicine
Named one of “Eleven Books to Read in March”
—Fortune
“An extraordinary tale about a community hospital fighting for its life in America’s heartland. Propulsive and moving.”
—Erick Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Death In Mud Lick
“… a brilliantly imaginative and creative way of telling the story of today’s America and the roots of what ails it, through the travails of a small-town hospital. In The Hospital, Brian Alexander does again so well what he did in Glass House — telling the big story from the small place.”
—Sam Quinones, author of Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic