ABSTRACT
Recent writings in academic journals have begun to delineate issues and problems related to the corporatization of health care. Lotty and her friend Max Loewenthal, executive director of a large Chicago hospital, explain to Vic about "bottom line" strategies in health care, which in this case contributed to Consuela and her baby's deaths. The Paretsky novel, Bitter Medicine, weaves many true-to-life aspects into its story of profit and greed. The setting of Chicagoland for a for-profit hospital chain to operate is quite appropriate. For-profit hospitals have sought out locations in well-to-do growing suburbs of large cities. The marketing practices at Friendship are questionable at best. In recent times, for-profit as well as "not-for-profit" hospitals have drawn criticism for their marketing practices—advertising services that they are unable to deliver or providing services of substandard quality.
