Cook County Summary

611 Words2 Pages

The book which I have chosen is County by David A. Ansell, M.D., MPH. This book entails the story of Dr. Ansell and his journey of becoming a doctor from the time he starts his residency to the end of his career at one of the nation's most controversial hospitals. The name of this hospital was Cook County Hospital (C.C.H.), this hospital no longer exists and now it is called John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. Dr. Ansell’s journey was an impactful one because he was a first hand witness to the struggles the hospital faced in everyday life and how much change had to be done to better the hospital. C.C.H. was a public hospital and people without health insurance were able to get treatment at this hospital but there was a price one had to pay, People had to wait hours to see a doctor and this possibly could be life threatening to the patient. This is the struggle one has to deal with being uninsured. More than that the hospital was filled with overcrowded rooms, inefficient doctors, and even the politics that ran the hospital were controversial. Throughout the book though Dr. Ansell talks about different health care providers who despite working in a corrupt hospital that is basically broken they were dedicated to fixing C.C.H. and loved working there. …show more content…

is a teaching hospital and a Federally Qualified Health Center. There is evidence of C.C.H. being a teaching hospital right from the beginning of the book. The book starts with Dr. Ansell just finishing his time in medical school at Syracuse and him and his friends look to get placed in a hospital for residency. They decided to choose C.C.H. from the beginning for they felt it was the right choice and that this hospital needed change. Throughout Dr. Ansell’s residency many tough challenges faced him for he realized that he had to learn many things by himself. When facing all the hard challenges none was as inspiring to Dr. Ansell as the one he faced when he was seeing one of his first ever patients who refused care from him because he was a “little white boy” who didn’t look the part of the doctor. Dr. Ansell stated that “If I did one thing during my time here, it would be to learn to be the best possible doctor for my patients”. The teaching hospital that C.C.H. was is something that inspired many doctors and it really opened eyes for many doctors to really love their profession and teach them to become the best possible doctor, for it was not an easy hospital to learn

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