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When physician Victoria Sweet first came to the Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco, she did it to complete complementary goals: She wanted a practice while earning her doctorate in the history of medicine and by any standard, the hospital was historic: It was the last almshouse in the United States, a descendant of the Hôtel-Dieu (God's hotel) that had cared for the poor since the Middle Ages. What began as a two-month experiment became a twenty-year run. God's Hotel tells the story of the hospital itself thru Dr. Sweet's personal experiences and observations. (P.S. Of this narrative, Oliver Sacks writes: "A most important book which raises fundamental questions about the nature of medicine in our time. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the 'business' of health care—and especially those interested in the humanity of health care.")
— Vicki Powers
Overview
San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital is the last almshouse in the country, a descendant of the Hôtel-Dieu (God's hotel) that cared for the sick in the Middle Ages. Ballet dancers and rock musicians, professors and thieves-"anyone who had fallen, or, often, leapt, onto hard times" and needed extended medical care-ended up here. So did Victoria Sweet, who came for two months and stayed for twenty years.
Laguna Honda, lower tech but human paced, gave Sweet the opportunity to ...