TAKING CARE OF OUR OWN: A Year...

TAKING CARE OF OUR OWN: A Year in the Life of a Small Town Hospital by Susan Garrett (Plume: $10.95; 177 pp.). Garrett’s account of her work as the administrator of a small hospital in rural Maine puts a human face on a little-known aspect of health care. She finds herself caught in the middle of an interlocking series of battles to provide care, manage the staff, deal with the trustees, remain a part of the community and stay solvent. She documents six decades of efforts by medical professionals to care for the indigent, and how the American Medical Assn. and other powerful lobbies defeated President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s plan to include universal health coverage in the Social Security program, a defeat that led to the current health care crisis.