Rabble Rouser: the Battle of 1989 to Save University Illinois Hospital

It's winter 1989. Imagine the devastating effects on Chicago if the University of Illinois Hospital were to disappear. A medical care resource that had served countless numbers since 1919 would be gone. The health care statistics of Chicago's west side, already the worst in the city and state, would decline even further. The primary teaching hospital of the country's largest medical school would be lost. Growth and development of Chicago's West Side would be stifled. >Opposition sprang up immediately. As President of the Medical Staff of the University of Illinois Hospital, Dr. John Skosey led a determined coalition of physicians, nurses, hospital staff, and community activists to combat the plan. Their exploits with the University administration, politicians, the press, and the community catapulted them into the risky world of high-stakes politics. The six months that it took to defeat the plan left the hospital crippled and the medical school in disarray. The critical tasks of restoration took years . That era left an indelible mark on the University of Illinois, its Medical Center, public health care in Chicago, and Chicago's West Side. In Rabble Rouser, Dr. Skosey pulls no punches while recounting these events in an accessible narrative that will provide lessons for public health and public policymakers everywhere.