N4L 073: "God's Hotel" by Dr. Victoria Sweet

Dr. Victoria Sweet intended to stay at Laguna Honda, America's last-standing almshouse, for only a couple months, but she stayed for 20 years! Now, she's captured her stories and observations in her book, God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine. Today, her experience with the sick poor at Laguna Honda continues to profoundly influence the way she perceives, patients, doctors, hospitals, and medicine. 00:15  Intro to Dr. Victoria Sweet, author of God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine 00:30   Sweet lays out a radical approach to healthcare 01:15   God’s Hotel is the predecessor to Sweet’s second book, Slow Medicine 02:10   Sweet practices at Laguna Honda, a hospital in the middle of San Francisco that looked like a medieval monastery 03:30   Laguna Honda, the last U.S. almshouse for the sick poor, predates health insurance 04:00   Monks and nuns took care of the sick poor as part of their vocation 05:50   Sweet stays at Laguna Honda for 20 years! 06:30   Sweet, an intellectual, moves from Jungian psychology to medicine 06:55   Effective modern medicine methods juxtaposed to deficits in doctor-patient relationship 08:10   Open wards with nurses allow time for good physical exams, understanding patient history 09:00   Slowing time down becomes critical to healing 09:30   Medieval writer Hildegard becomes Sweet’s primary mentor and medical muse 10:00   During her Ph.D. program, Sweet “meets” Hildegard, a 12th-century nun, abbess, mystic, theologian, and medical practitioner 11:00   The body as a plant vs. a machine; the doctor as a gardener vs. a mechanic 12:00   Split in views between good and evil 13:00   Modern medicine assumes the doctor is a healthcare provider, implying healthcare is a commodity and patient is a consumer 14:20   While the doctor examines the patient, the patient is examining the doctor 16:10   Doctors spend the same amount of time they’ve always spent with patients, but time is now used differently 16:30   Doctor-patient time together down just 2.5 minutes, but doctor spends far less time looking at the patient and far more time logging data into a computer 18:15   Electronic medical records - “a disaster” 18:30   Losing continuity with patients 20:15   The efficiency of inefficiency (e.g., Christmas Day gift exchange) 23:15   Terri Becker’s severe, hopeless story inspires Sweet to write God’s Hotel 24:30   Terri’s bedsores, “as big as your head,” take 2.5 years to heal 26:30   Nondemanding love at Laguna Honda allows patients to heal emotionally and physically 27:45   Sweet learns to remove what’s in the way of body’s own natural healing powers 28:15   Medieval approach: allow “Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman” to heal a patient 30:40   Recommendation: Yoga for Beginners (DVDs by Element) BUY God's Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine BUY Slow Medicine: The Way to Healing BUY Element: Yoga for Stress Relief & Flexibility BUY Element: Hatha & Flow Yoga for Beginners BUY Element: AM & PM Yoga For Beginners Connect with us! Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Website Special thanks… Music Credit Sound Editing Credit