The Hospital: Life, Death, and Dollars in a Small American Town

Brian Alexander

Mar 2021 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Nick Landrum

About this audiobook

An intimate, heart wrenching portrait of one small hospital that reveals the magnitude of America’s health care crises.

“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

By following the struggle for survival of one small-town hospital, and the patients who walk, or are carried, through its doors, The Hospital takes listeners into the world of the American medical industry in a way no audiobook has done before. Americans are dying sooner, and living in poorer health. Alexander argues that no plan will solve America’s health crisis until the deeper causes of that crisis are addressed.

Bryan, Ohio's hospital, is losing money, making it vulnerable to big health systems seeking domination and Phil Ennen, CEO, has been fighting 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, and a 55-year-old contractor lies dying in the emergency room. With these and other stories, Alexander strips away the wonkiness of policy to reveal Americans’ struggle for health against a powerful system that’s stacked against them, but yet so fragile it blows apart when the pandemic hits. Culminating with COVID-19, this audiobook offers a blueprint for how we created the crisis we're in.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

"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

Ratings and reviews

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About the author

Brian Alexander, the author of Glass House and winner of the Ohioana Book Awards, is a contributing writer to The Atlantic. He’s written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Esquire, among others. He’s spoken at The Obama Foundation Summit, and in Washington to members of the Senate and House of Representatives. He lives in San Diego.