BETH Israel Hospital is the real name of a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital that I shall assume is known to everyone attending this seminar. Northbridge is the fictitious name of a city in the Greater Boston area that is also known, at least by (real) name, to many of us. Both are profoundly affected by the widely advertised crisis in health care in the United States.Instead of considering that crisis in the abstract, as has been done so frequently in recent months, I shall focus on the resultant difficulties and challenges for the Beth Israel Hospital and for . . .