THE CLINICIANS

A novel focuses on an internecine battle among five women seeking to climb the medical corporate ladder.

This quintet flies in weekly to various hospitals for the corporation EMRC, coming together to encrypt medical records and to teach doctors and nurses how to do the same with the goal of maximizing profits. Brea Foster is an abused woman who is her family’s primary breadwinner. Kate Parks is a pill-popping pretty young thing who can never please her mother. Reese Holland is a faded Southern belle and an alcoholic. Her White racist background makes her contemptuous of the team’s two Black members, Madeline Warren and Anne Walter. Madeline is in a marriage of convenience, with both spouses taking lovers. On her way to ruling this roost is the aging Anne, a physician’s wife who knows how to play the game. They all deal with a dog-eat-dog world, with each trying to climb over the other in stiletto heels. Ethics fly out the window in the name of higher insurance reimbursements, malpractice be damned. As Anne’s star rises, the others seek to imitate her traits, both procedural and physical, in hopes of improving their own chances of advancement. But all along, Anne has been playing a Machiavellian long game, and the rest are in danger of getting broken down and spit out by EMRC if they can’t keep pace with the shifting rules of engagement. This caustic cautionary tale offers a thought-provoking premise, diverse characters, a clear window into a dark world, and plenty of intrigue. The story also addresses the serious and timely issue of abuse. But the novel reads much longer than its 191 pages. Being set in the esoteric world of health records and information doesn’t help, especially since how that field works remains murky despite the tale’s elaborate details. Smith’s stance appears to be that the Hippocratic Oath is an anachronism since the health care business doesn’t really worry about patients’ well-being. While this seems increasingly true, few will want to read about the proponents of such a practice. There are no sympathetic characters here, leaving no one the audience can root for. It’s difficult to care about five women who are missing moral centers. Many readers will wish for a pox on all their houses by the book’s end.

An intriguing but uneven dive into the profit-driven environment of modern medicine.