The Hospital by Brian Alexander

THE HOSPITAL by Brian Alexander (The Glass House) is an in-depth look at an independent community hospital called CHWC in Bryan, Ohio (population about 8,000). The day it arrived, our copy was checked out by a student researching healthcare in rural America. Alexander, already recognized by Medill School of Journalism for his public interest journalism, writes eloquently here about “Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town.” He has divided this text into three sections, beginning in Autumn 2018, followed by Winter/Spring, 2018-2019, and then the start of Covid in late 2019- early 2020.  Throughout, Alexander highlights the many services the local hospital provides while struggling to stay competitive with larger regional providers. Providing context (“at almost 18 percent of the entire economy, health was the nation’s largest industry by far”) and profiling individual stories of cancer patients, meth addicts and heart attack victims, Alexander points out that “America was sick, and getting sicker and dying earlier with every passing year.” He moves beyond the local community and its hospital’s many issues to discuss the minimum wage in Ohio (actually lower than 40 years ago when adjusted for inflation), the loss of pensions and unions, and the role of government, contrasting the business metrics and the mission of the hospital, “a battlefield clinic in an amorphous and mutating social and economic war that was killing people.” Extensive notes and a helpful index are included. THE HOSPITAL was universally acclaimed, receiving starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal and Publishers Weekly.