Chicago County General is Michael Crichton's best known hospital world. Although he wrote the pilot episode in 1974, it wasn't until 20 years later that Drs Mark Greene, John Carter, Doug Ross or Peter Benton became familar faces for TV viewers for 15 seasons.
However, Michael Crichton's experience as a medical student took place at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Based on this Experience in 1970 he had already written the non-fiction book "Five Patients. The Hospital Explained". A previous novel from 1968 initially written under pseudonym, "A Case of Need", and made into a film under the title "The Carey Treatment" (1972) is also set in a hospital, as is Robin Cook's "Coma", whose film adapation he wrote and directed in 1978. I would also add "The Terminal Man" (novel, 1972; film 1974) to Crichton's hospital worlds, as it deals specifically with issues around neurosurgery.
On a personal note, "A Case of Need" was the first Michael Crichton novel I ever read, back in 1994 during a summer in Copenhagen, Denmark, where I borrowed a copy at the Niels Bohr Institute. That wasthe beginning of the journey that has taken me to read/watch everything by and about Michael Crichton I could find and that is listes on this website.
