Description
Book SynopsisA surprising look at how hospitals affect and are affected by their surrounding communities. An enduring paradox of urban public health is that many communities around hospitals are economically distressed and, counterintuitively, medically underserved. In The City and the Hospital two sociologists, Jonathan R. Wynn and Berkeley Franz, and a political scientist, Daniel Skinner, track the multiple causes of this problem and offer policy solutions. Focusing on three urban hospitalsConnecticut's Hartford Hospital, the flagship of the Hartford Healthcare system; the Cleveland Clinic, which coordinates with other providers for routine care whileits main campus provides specialty care; and the University of Colorado Hospital, a rare example of an urban institution that relocated to a new communitythe authors analyze the complicated relationship between a hospital and its neighborhoods. On the one hand, hospitals anchor the communities that surround them, often staying in a neighborho
Trade Review“By comparing three different hospitals and their communities,
The City and the Hospital shows how hospitals are not only medical institutions but powerful and complex forces within urban contexts. This truly novel recasting generates important insights about policy interventions that could transform hospital/city relationships and improve population health.” -- Sara Shostak, Brandeis University
“Across America, communities are often excluded from the world-class care provided walking-distance from their homes. This book chronicles these gut-wrenching urban health disparities—how they came to be, how hospitals and policymakers learned to tolerate them, and what we must do about them.
The City and the Hospital is essential reading for any citizen, policymaker, and hospital leader who wishes to address this profound failure of America’s medical political economy.” -- Harold Pollack, University of Chicago
"An important and timely contribution for those who care about the life of the American city, about inequalities, and about our medical system. Benefiting from three scholarly perspectives, this work provides a beautifully written and empirically rich assessment of how hospitals fit within communities, and provides clear policy prescriptions for how these institutions could better serve their mission and our cities." -- Shamus Khan, Princeton University
Table of ContentsAcronyms
Introduction
1 Why Are So Many Hospital Neighborhoods Health Poor?
2 How History “Keys” the Hospital and Community Relationship
3 “What’s Your Total Commitment to the Community?”: Explicit and Implicit Hospital Development Strategies
4 Healthcare in the Contact Zone: Unconventional Spaces, Institutional Changes, and Communities of Color
5 Ambiguous Obligations and Mixed Expectations
6 Six Policy Areas for Communities and Hospitals
Acknowledgments
Appendix A: On Methods
Appendix B: Comparative Data
Appendix C: Hospital-Identified Needs and Programs
Notes
References
Index
