46 pages 1 hour read

Samuel Shem

The House of God

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1978

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Chapters 9-13 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary

Roy and Chuck begin having sex with social service workers to get their patients placed out of their care, fulfilling one of the Fat Man’s “rules” of medicine—get the patient out of your care as soon as possible.  Roy endures an uncomfortable dinner at Jo’s house, where her unpacked belongings indicate that she is too heavily invested in her work. She mentions that it’s hard to meet men as a female physician and asks what she can do to be a better supervisor. Roy tells her to let the interns have more autonomy and to try doing less for the patients. She says she’ll try but still goes in to the hospital on her next day off. 

Dr. Sanders, who was diagnosed with leukemia and underwent chemotherapy, dies an agonizing death in Roy’s arms, upsetting him. Jo tells Roy to do a postmortem autopsy, but Roy doesn’t want to see the man’s body be put through the procedure. He fights with Jo about it and tells her that the reason their patients have been being transferred out of the ward is because he and Chuck are sleeping with social service workers. A confrontation ensues between Roy and some of the doctors higher up in hospital administration, and Roy vocalizes some of his complaints about the hospital’s system.