Become a part of history

In October of 1975, Cook County Hospital interns and other fellow residents gathered for a physician led strike to address the inadequacies of medical care given to Cook County Hospital patients. This became known as the one of the longest physician-led strikes in American history, giving rise to immediate and long lasting positive changes in the way patients receive care. As a result, improvements for patient care were written in contract and the House Staff Association (HSA) was given the right to have a say in patient care standards and processes. A Medical Care Review Committee was established to carry out the improvements and deal with future patient care problems. In addition, faster receipts of lab results, in-house interpreters for non-native speakers, and qualified teams for IV access, among other things, were agreed upon. Below is raw footage of a speaker from those strikes, where he adds, “This is the best place to train doctors. This is the only place that I know that you can really train doctors in medicine and not how to get paid.”