When Unemployed Means Unhealthy Too
Research confirms what physicians observe and what everyone seems to know in their gut: losing a job is bad for our health. Our crazy patchwork system that ties health insurance to our jobs means that the recession–and it’s “jobless recovery”–are damaging our nation’s health. More
Residency Regulators are Back!
Every patient wants a doctor who is well rested and alert, but limiting residents to 80 hours per week wasn’t as simple a panacea as it seemed. In fact, the 80-hour workweek did not decrease errors and did not increase sleep time for the doctors. More
The Pastor’s Son
There was a sharp rap at the apartment door. When Samuel Chuks Nwanko opened it, he saw a young man standing in the hallway wearing a stained denim jacket over a University of Nigeria T-shirt. The whites of his eyes were spidered with crimson streaks. He was probably a fellow university student, but not in the civil engineering department. Samuel didn’t recognize him. More
Why Patients Don’t Take Their Meds
For a substantial number of people, medicine from a prescription is automatically suspect. But if it comes from a health food store, there’s not a hint of concern. More
A Patient, a Death, but No One to Grieve
What if a patient dies and nobody is there to mourn? Is it like a tree falling silently in the forest? More
Scenes From the Lives They Lived in the City
”Nine P.M.,” somebody shouted. ”Rikers bus rollin’ in!” I stepped out of the Bellevue E.R. into the chilly spring night to see what the excitement was. Just pulling in was a school bus, the kind I’d taken every day in elementary school… More
Treating Patients When Language Is Only One of the Barriers
“A defective heart, a child detained by border guards — Julia Barquero had already had her struggles. But now her physician at Bellevue Hospital Center, Dr. Danielle Ofri, was trying to explain to Ms. Barquero that she could not receive a heart transplant because she was an illegal immigrant. More
At Bellevue, a hospital reflects a changing world
Though city hospitals invoke images of charity patients and substandard, last-resort medical care, the reality is quite different. More
Sometimes, Doctors Find Answers Far Off the Charts
Sometimes it is only when the patient is halfway out the door that the important information spills out. The “hand on the doorknob” phenomenon is well known in medicine. More
At a Bustling City Clinic, Esperanto Would Come In Handy
Despite three long years of high school French, the best I could come up with was “Je m’appelle Dr. Ofri.” More
A Literary Review at Bellevue? Believe It
“Just tell me a story,” Dr. Danielle Ofri admonishes her medical students and interns at morning rounds. To Dr. Ofri, an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital Center, a part-time writer and the editor in chief of the Bellevue Literary Review, every patient’s history is a mystery story, a narrative that unfolds full of surprises, exposing the vulnerability at the human core. More
Book Club Guides
Have a book club? Looking for something different? Beacon Press now offers book club guides for all of Danielle’s books. There is also a book club guide for “The Best of the Bellevue Literary Review” that is also a full medical humanities curriculum. Check them out and share with friends. What Doctors Feel Singular Intimacies … More
Hospital Rankings: Bulk and Bunk
Every year the U.S. New & World Report publishes its rankings of the nation’s top 50 hospitals. Hospital administrators await this top 50 report with a tension and fervor that rivals the NFL first-draft pick. What’s inside the sausage of hospital rankings? More
St. Vincent’s Hospital (1849-2010)
Locking the entrance to the emergency room: there could not have been a more potent image to the final day of St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City. After 160 years, St. Vincent’s closed because of financial problems. It was the only hospital serving Greenwich Village and the last Catholic hospital in Manhattan. The closing … More
Immigration and Health Care
Every time Jade backs into my tiny office, I am impressed. With a skill worthy of a New York taxi driver, she maneuvers her manual wheelchair in reverse into the sliver of space between the exam table and my desk in our crowded city clinic. More
