#36. The People’s Hospital: Better and Less Costly Medical Care, Putting Patients’ Needs Above Profit

Ricardo Nuila is a writer, physician, and professor of medicine, medical ethics, and health policy at Baylor College of Medicine, where he teaches the practice of hospital medicine and directs the Humanities Expression and Arts Lab. The son of Salvadoran immigrants and a native Houstonian, Ricardo has worked as an attending physician in the city’s largest safety-net facility, Ben Taub Hospital, for more than ten years. His fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories anthology and his journalistic pieces have been published on the website of the New Yorker, covering such subjects as the medical response to Hurricane Harvey and to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has won awards for his teaching and advocacy, as well as for his writing, including the New England Review’s inaugural Award for Emerging Writers. He recently published his first book, The People’s Hospital, which is the subject of today’s interview.

Recorded 6/6/23.