God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine

We stand at the cross roads of medicine, a battle for the soul of medicine. The old way versus the new way. We have become so sure of technology and been lead to believe that if we don't get on the more medicine is better medicine train, that we are old fashioned and not "good" doctors. However, God's Hotel, has us all pause before we cross that threshold. Somehow complicated sick patients that everyone gave up when in a caring environment, on less medications, and given the "tincture" of time will get better, sometimes miraculously. There is a fatal flaw to certain things in modern medicine that will never be able to be quantified and thus not adequately included in clinical studies."Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman" are critical to what gives us purpose and the ability for the body and mind to recover. Dr. Sweet reminds us that in the end love is the most powerful medicine. Technology is not to be ignored but neither should love. This was beautiful reminder and one that needs to be part of medical and nursing training. As a practicing physician, in the uncertainty of what healthcare will become, we need to heed the advice before the lost art of healing and the compassion of medicine is forgotten.

This is how we are drawn to read books.On a recent trip to San Francisco, sitting at the Forest Park bus station, I gazed across the street and asked my friend what kind of hospital is Laguna Honda, that pinkish Spanish looking hacienda style building across the street. Oh, my friend said, my friend "Barbara", was a nurse and retired from there....and I am told there is actually a book written about the hospital. Later in my visit I met Barbara and listened to her story, which in turn led to me downloading "God's Hotel". Having worked in Medicine in my career, possessing an interest in the meditative qualities of medieval music, and somewhat of a "pilgrim" in my approach to life I was quickly engaged with the book's story all the way to the end."God's Hotel" is written by Victoria Sweet who we meet at the beginning of the book, a new MD clinician at the beginning of her career in medicine. She is drawn to work at Laguna Honda because of it's unusual status as one of the last free public hospitals for the chronically ill poor, a medieval alms house, in the world. It is patterned on the Hotel Dieu in Paris. However, practically it allowed Dr. Sweet to pursue a Ph.D in the History of Medicine by only requiring her to work in the Admitting Ward part-time. At the hospital she quickly becomes very engaged in caring for patients because the hospital's operating method allowed both physicians and nurses a great deal of freedom to pursue their healing art and science. At the same time, she finds a mentor for her Ph.D studies in pre-modern medicine with a doctor whose office is in one of the almost forgotten tower rooms.In the early chapters, "God's Hotel" juxtaposes Sweets increasing knowledge of pre-modern medicine through the study of the Benedictine Nun, Hildegard von Bingen and her treatment of patients. You, the reader may be familiar with her music! These first chapters lay out this medieval nun's understanding of the human body and what determines health and illness. Sweet frequently finds opportunities to examine her patients, understand their illness, and by applying Hildegard von Bingen's insights in pre-modern medicine.Lest you, the prospective reader of this book leap to the conclusion this is yet another book on homepathy, quack remedies, and the danger of vaccinations - it is not that.The main story in the book is the tension between Laguna Honda, as an Alms House, and it's progressive encounter with the pressures for modern, efficient health care delivery driven by insurers and hospital administrations. Sweet walks us through this encounter in a very personal way through the lives of her patients and her journey as a physician. Later in the book, she actually makes her thought and belief pilgrimage real by walking over fours years the famous St. Jean de Compostela pilgrimage route in France and Spain.If you work or study medicine, enjoy medieval music, and consider yourself a "pilgrim" in life......this book is for you.

Read this some time ago and was most impressed with the author's superb writing ability. The story put me in mind of my student nurse experiences at Bellevue Hospital over 50 years ago ( also "a hospital of last resort of sorts" ) for many of New York City's poor and forgotten. Dr. Sweet's ability to intertwine her medical experiences with her scholarly endeavors makes for an unusually compelling story. I couldn't put the book down. I bought this book as a birthday present for another nurse friend who, along with the author and myself, remembers a time and a place where individual patients were appreciated for their individuality and listened to in a way that no longer exists. My friend also could not put the book down and lent it to a retired physician who also enjoyed the book immensely.

This book I feel should be a mandatory read for all who are going into the health care field - medical & nursing students, etc and even hospital CEO's. It is a reminder of what real medicine is all about. Yes it is a business and you need money to stay open, etc. but it is so much more than that. Especially in the era of computers, the patient falls to the wayside, some doctors see the computer more than the face of their patients. Some doctors really too much on the computer, on print outs, about getting notes done, etc. They loose some of the most important tools - their instincts, the touch, feel and listen to/of the patient, the wonderful stories they may hear, the worry and fear they may see in their eyes, or the reassured and relaxed look when they trust. Sometimes the old ways are still the best ways. We need to keep a mesh of both so both sides benefit.

Are you drowning and disillusioned in NHS bureaucracy? Healthcare professional watching your precious custom-built and perfectly fitting inpatient service/clinic being dismantled by financial auditors and politicians? Are you so depressed by media reporting of doctors and the NHS that you and your patients are sinking into your trust's budget hole together?Then this is the book for you.Just remember those lovely jobs where nothing mattered but the patients and everything in your service was geared towards looking after them. Time was your own and your patients'. No second agenda. These days of pure healthcare aren't over.This book, whilst written in the US, describes an almshouse hospital (which gives free treatment) and is akin to all NHS institutions, so do not be put off reading the book if you work in the UK rather than the US.Reading the book may not cure the destruction of your own hospital, life and doctor-patient relationship by the trusts, central government and media, but it will push back the hopelessness that goes with it.It is an accurate account of the difficulties we all face with complex patients, and the conflict with external bodies who have no interest in the patients' well-being but seem to want to make all the decisions about their care - without even meeting them!This is the best book I've read for some years. Full of hope and happiness despite the pressures she faces, she writes in a lovely way. I read the whole book in one go. Read it for a great motivation boost. You'll go back on Monday feeling infinitely brighter.

Today's society norm of taking care of its sick poor originates from the time when monks in the Benedictine era (600 A.D.) were charged to put this duty above all other duties. The Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, regarded as the oldest hospital in the city of Paris, France, was founded by monks in the seventh century. Eventually nuns had sole charge of their patients and only invited physicians in occasionally for difficult patients! This was the time of pre-modern medicine when the world was still understood in Greek terms to consist of four elements, earth, water, air and fire and the body consisted of four humors black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. Everything had to be in balance and the remedy for illness was to correct that balance using diet, bleeding, herbal medicines & changes to climate. The interpretation became known as the "System of Fours" and is all very strange to us. Dr. Victoria Sweet is a contemporary American doctor who developed an interest in pre-modern medicine. In her remarkable book called God's Hotel published in 2012, she gives a riveting account of her practice at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco whilst studying the work of Hildegard of Bingen, who practiced the old art of medieval medicine. Laguna Honda Hospital is reputedly the oldest "almshouse" (charitable institution for the poor) in America. It was built in 1866 and was based on the "Hôtel-Dieu" principle, that of seeking to relieve pain of one who does not deserve. Its role was particularly significant during a smallpox epidemic in 1868 and in the earthquake and fire of 1908. In the 20 years that Dr Sweet spent in the original hospital building, she cared for patients not covered by insurance including complex medical cases, failed surgical cases, terminally ill patients, revolving door patients (repeatedly being readmitted), drug addicts, alcoholics and the street sleepers. With "progress" in such matters as health economics, privacy laws, disability rights and the march against institutional care the hospital came under one expensive investigation after another. Hildegard (1098 to 1179 A.D.) of Bingen, Germany was a truly remarkable woman. Not only a devout nun, she was a composer, author, theologian, lexicographer (wrote a dictionary) and expert in pre-modern medicine. She advocated such things as a good diet, quietness, sex, liquids (deep sleep), fresh air and sunlight. She was well known for her healing powers using tinctures, herbs, and precious stones.As a result of the enlightenment and the scientific revolution that followed in the 18th century the system of fours that had been around for centuries was finally & totally discredited. We now know that the body is not healthy through a balance of four humors but by respecting its remarkable composition of living cells. But the question that arose in Dr Sweet's mind was whether or not one could learn anything from Hildegard's practice. Could Hildegard's approach to the patient be usefully applied to any of Dr Sweet's patients in Laguna Honda Hospital?God's Hotel is a gripping book and a must read for all health care and allied professionals. In the light of the NHS scandal at the Mid Staffordshire Hospital and the subsequent report by Robert Francis QC, it is also a must read for politicians and NHS Managers! It is also a good read for anyone who is interested in getting back the balance in their troubled lives through societal issues or sickness.

A good writer caught in a really interesting position. Occasionally the style swings from formal, to very informal, but generally it is well written. I think all junior doctors and meld students will enjoy it. It talks a lot about different styles of medicine, and how individual doctors' methods varied. This has helped me fell more secure about my practice, and appreciate other doctors more.

I gave it to our daughter and she found it a fascinating and wonderful book..it tells of a most enlightening way to care for people in a hospital in California years ago that should be used again..a community setting rather than lots of private rooms where folks are isolated. a worthy read.

A beautiful book for nurses, doctors, healthcare professionals, and patients alike. One of the best books I have read in a long time. Victoria Sweet sucks you in; you become part of her world in the hospital, and can see everything she describes. It is a moving, compelling, and wonderfully human read. It is also pretty heart-breaking to read about the bureaucratic nonsense that governs healthcare and that ultimately wins out because, as we all know, money usually does. She gets to the heart of it all, and she does it with such poise and grace in her writing and interpretation of situations and encounters that both makes me happy that she is a Physician, and sad that there aren't more like her.I am so happy Dr. Sweet wrote this book; it is so accessible. She writes with understanding and compassion, and as someone who seems to *get* it, rationally and realistically speaking. She describes so perfectly one of the fundamental problems of north american healthcare: lack of time. Taking away time destroys the ability to give optimal healthcare, and she captures this perfectly.As Dr. Sweet finds herself doing with Hildegard of Bingen, I now find myself thinking, "hmmm...what would Dr. Sweet do?" - which tells me that this book really impacted me and my nursing practice!