"When it comes to healthcare, bigger isn't always better. The early-1990s rise of "megaproviders"-large, hospital-based healthcare systems that have become the norm in American medicine-brought promises of accessibility, cost savings, and excellence to the American healthcare experience. Today's megaproviders, following three decades of growth and consolidation, receive as much as two-thirds of healthcare spending in the United States. Big Med examines...

Here the author, a physician and reporter, provides a landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, and a suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice. She reconstructs five days at Memorial Medical Center and draws the reader into the lives of those who struggled mightily to survive and to maintain life amid chaos. After Katrina struck and the floodwaters rose, the power failed, and the...