- Michael Reese, hospital benefactor (Front, Main Reese)
The Rise and Fall Of Michael Reese Hospital
Although this post does not center on patient compliance, I thought that, given the high proportion of medical professionals among AlignMap’s readers, there may be some interested in the thoughts and memories occasioned by the impending demise of Michael Reese Hospital
A stellar healthcare institution, a prime example of the Jewish mission to care for the sick, and a linchpin of Chicago’s South Side throughout most of the 20th Century, Reese was also the home of my psychiatric residency in the 1970s. The Psychosomatic and Psychiatric Institute at Michael Reese Hospital, its outpatient facility, Wexler Pavilion, and the long time Chair of Psychiatry at Reese, Roy Grinker, MD, in fact, comprise one focus of the essay.
I was fortunate to discover and receive permission to use an outstanding set of photos of the Michael Reese Hospital campus,1 taken by Lee Bey, who authors Lee Bey: The Urban Observer, a blog which focuses on community and architectural elements of Chicago. I urge viewers to at least check these shots of the Hospital buildings, soon to be replaced by the Olympic Village that is part of Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Games.
These impressive photos, a brief account of Reese’s history, its contributions to medical science, and the role it played in its Chicago community, and my perspective on that once great, irreducibly humanitarian, vitally flawed medical center can be found at
Last Exit From Michael Reese Hospital - The Final Days
Footnotes
__________- Those photos by Lee Bey include the photograph of the statue of Michael Reese seen at the beginning of this post.↩