Critical

This book is great. You will finish it in one day, its that good.

I buy the Robin Cook books for my Life Partner. It is his favorite author and he enjoys all of his books.

This one is from the Jack and Laurie series. It is fulled with excitement and very entertaining! It is everything you would expect from Robin Cook! Enjoy!!

Corporate fraud has not involved an attractive female doctor turned CEO until now, with Robin Cook's "Critical." This is a great book...a fast, page-turning ride of intrigue involving the health care system, a development stage company going IPO (an Initial Public Offering), organized crime, and Washington lobbyists. Angela Dawson, MD/MBA, a divorced single parent, doctor turned CEO is facing the challenge of a lifetime for any CEO. The company she founded, Angels Healthcare, LLC, is about to go public but is experiencing a mini-epidemic of nosocomial methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. A number of patients have died at three of their New York City based hospitals resulting in the shutdown of their surgical suites, a cash crunch and the potential delay of the IPO. This delay may mean insolvency and the loss of millions not only to the founders but also to key investors, one of NYC's crime bosses. Key figures include Jack Stapleton, forensic pathologist in NYC Office of Chief Medical Examiner who is scheduled for knee surgery at Angels Orthopedic Hospital; Stapleton's wife, Laurie Montgomery, who is also a forensic pathologist at OCME; Walter Osgood, MD, Department Head of Clinical Pathology for Angels Healthcare; Michael Calabrese, Dawson's ex-husband who helped raise the start-up capital for Angels from childhood friend and crime boss, Vinnie Dominick; Adam Williamson, a killing machine who worked for healthcare lobbyists in Washington, DC; and Angelo Facciolo, hitman for Dominick. Montgomery who becomes increasingly concerned with her husband's scheduled surgery as a result of post-mortems on a stream of patients operated at Angels' facilities initiates an unofficial investigation of the cause. Dawson, Dominick, and the DC lobbyists, concerned with "overenthusiastic medical examiner" take matters into their own hands to silence Montgomery. Dominick had already murdered Paul Yang, Angels' Chief Accountant, and Amy Lucas, Yang's administrative assistant. "Critical" bobs and weaves between stories of the key figures then lurches to an unexpected and satisfying outcome. The book also raises and details some issues of the day, including: * The rise and shortcomings of specialty hospitals in the US - They "don't have the resources for serious problems and have to outsource them, are interested in the cream of patients (healthy, well insured), like quick procedures that require no overnight stay (in and out), and have no ER or ICU. They are money making machines." * Conflicts of doctors and the business of medicine - "Success from business as measured by wealth and its trappings had trumped altruism, charity, and the pleasures of interpersonal intimacy. * Hospital infection rates - Hospital acquired infections affect about two million patients per year resulting in 90,000 deaths per year in the US alone. * Nosocomial methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections - one of the greatest healthcare

You'll be running for the antibacterial soap after this one. Not for the squeamish, this is up close and personal in the autopsy suites. More information on virulent staph infections than you might want to know, but on the other hand, maybe this is something we should all be aware of, especially if one of you is headed for knee surgery. I love getting the inside dope on the medical profession and hospitals--and Robin Cook is full of tips. They're always up to something--usually something that's in the interest of money and not the patient. This book gives a very revealing picture of the "cash cows" of medicine; the invasive tests that are favored because of quick reimbursement, and the specialty hospitals that are partially owned by physician/investors, draining resources of the health care industry in general because they skim the cream of the patients (the well-insured, the wealthy). Full service hospitals are left with chaff--emergency rooms, the uninsured, the chronically ill; anchors around their financial neck. As a sort of side story woven into the action (which I found slightly less engaging) the mob is attracted to the windfall of money from specialty hospitals like flies to garbage. Hard to write about wiseguys and be original. Cook has crafted a medical thriller that cuts the shenanigans wide open like a can of worms, reaching all the way to Washington lobbyists. His knowledge and research are astounding, and he puts it to good use, concocting a riveting story that when it gets in gear, races from page to page. It does take awhile for the story to develop, but the time investment is worth it. The final chapter will have you completely engrossed and transfixed, delivering the maximum amount of tension, adventure and unbearable suspense, leading to a great ending.