God’s Hotel by Victoria Sweet

What is the most efficient strategy of providing health care? Should quality food and one-on-on doctor-patient care be replaced with high tech machines and fast-paced diagnostics? What does it truly take to turn a hospital into a community? God’s Hotel spends a great deal of time picking apart these questions as a means of understanding how slow medicine practices may be more valuable to patients and staff alike. And as the Centers for Disease Control currently estimates that nearly 70% of Americans will end up passing away in a hospital, nursing home or long-term-care facility, it’s not hard to see why these questions are so important to our well being.

The Centers for Disease Control currently estimates that nearly 70% of Americans will end up passing away in a hospital, nursing home or long-term-care facility

God’s Hotel endeavors to answer all these questions and more as Sweet writes about her experience as a doctor at San Francisco’s Laguna Honda Hospital during its transition from an old almshouse into the modern medical facility that it is today. Sweet’s unique experience with slow medicine comes into play as she analyzes the writings of Hildegard of Bingen’s Medicine. Comparing her own medical experience to that of the twelfth century mystic, Sweet tells tales of several stories of how she was able to heal patients in the most unexpected ways by listening and looking at her patients’ ailments and living by the age-old proverb that “Even without a doctor/You have three doctors at hand/ Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman”(p. 159). In other words, through her years of experience in practicing as a doctor and studying medical history, she learned the value of how a good diet, plenty of rest, and peaceful and happy thoughts are the secret to keeping a patient healthy and strong.

Old Laguna Honda Hospital
Credit: Lawrence Li on Flickr

God’s Hotel is filled with various tales about patients recovering their lives and their strength, or finding that last scrap of peace thanks to the unique culture of Laguna Honda. The tale of Miss Tod, in particular, is a shining example of how slow medicine can be used to help doctors provide comfort to patients in their final hours. Sweet recounts that Miss Tod was a patient with a very aggressive case of cancer. Although she was not officially Sweet’s patient, after spending just a few moments talking with Miss Tod, Sweet was astounded to realize that, although she was nearing the end of her life, all she really wanted was to be able to eat more decent food and have her glasses fixed.

Comparing her own medical experience to that of the twelfth century mystic, Sweet tells tales of several stories of how she was able to heal patients in the most unexpected ways by listening and looking at her patients’ ailments

In this way, Sweet says, “She convinced me of the corollary: It’s not the big thing. The big thing—the hand of God, fate—can be accepted, perhaps because it is so big and fateful, so unchangeable. But the small things are correctable, or should be, if people only cared to notice”(p. 36). And overall, this is the most powerful message that God’s Hotel delivers. Although modern medicine advances have given us new tools that we can use to pinpoint illness and a plethora of medication that we can use to treat various ailments, there is no substitute for stepping back and observing, talking and empathizing with a patient.  These small touches and truly human connections can make all the difference in helping someone feel at home even when they are in the hospital. In your own experience, what kind of treatment would you prefer?

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