A Peek Behind the Swinging Hospital Doors

When you visit a hospital in real life, you probably won’t see the quick diagnoses and swarthy doctors that populate the medical field on TV shows like E.R. and Grey’s Anatomy.

Hospitals are big businesses, where bureaucracy, budgets, politics and personalities shape patient care. Award-winning journalist Julia Salamon spent a year getting an insider’s view of one of the nation’s largest hospitals. She came away with a revealing portrait of modern medicine from those who make the system run.

Her new book is called Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money , God and Diversity on Steroids. She joins us on Word of Mouth to talk about her work.