by Ross Koppel and Suzanne Gordon (2012)
Each year, hospital-acquired infections, prescribing and treatment errors, lost documents and test reports, communication failures, and other problems have caused thousands of deaths in the United States, added millions of days to patients' hospital stays, and cost Americans tens of billions of dollars. Despite (and sometimes because of) new medical information technology and numerous well-intentioned initiatives to address these problems, threats to patient safety remain, and in some areas are on the rise. In First, Do Less Harm, twelve health care professionals and researchers plus two former patients look at patient safety from a variety of perspectives, finding many of the proposed solutions to be inadequate or impractical. Several contributors to this book attribute the failure to confront patient safety concerns to the influence of the "market model" on medicine and emphasize the need for hospital-wide teamwork and greater involvement from frontline workers (from janitors and aides to nurses and physicians) in planning, implementing, and evaluating effective safety initiatives.
Elizabeth L. Bewley
Killer Cure will change the way you think about your health and health care. Assumptions made on both sides--patient and health care system--need to be reconsidered, and solving the health care crisis needs a new purpose.
Peter Pronovost and Eric Vohr
While Americans spend more on health care than any other country in the western world, our hospitals and clinics kill more patients. Patient safety expert Dr. Peter Pronovost is working to remedy that, by changing the way hospitals and doctors function day to day. In fact, his ideas are already saving people. By introducing a five-step checklist that standardizes a common ICU procedure, Dr. Pronovost has decreased the rate of infection--and as a result, unnecessary deaths--across the country by 90 percent. In this book, Dr. Pronovost makes reform relatable, easy to understand, and inspiring.--From publisher description.
Amy Hoffman
Hospital Time is a memoir about friendship, family, and caregiving in the age of AIDS. Amy Hoffman, a writer, lesbian activist, and former editor of Gay Community News, chronicles with fury and unflinching honesty her experience serving as primary caretaker for her friend and colleague, Mike Riegle, who died from AIDS-related complications in 1992. Hoffman neither idealizes nor deifies Riegle, whom she portrays as a brilliant man, devoted prison rights activist, and very difficult friend.
Larry Cohen
"How do trees help reduce violence? What do roads have to do with chronic disease? Prevention Diaries examines the unexpected yet empirically predictable relationships that shape our health, providing the keys to realizing vitality and health across our society. With passion, wisdom, and humor, internationally recognized prevention expert Larry Cohen draws on his three decades of experience to make a case for building health into the everyday fabric of our lives-from health care to workplaces, urban planning to agriculture. Prevention Diaries envisions an alternate model of American health care, one less predicated on treating sickness and more focused on preventing it. Doing so requires a shift in how our society perceives and approaches health -- first recognizing our overreliance on individual solutions, then building an environment conducive to preventing problems before they occur. Through first-person vignettes and scientific data, Cohen shows that prevention is the cure for what ails us. By creating greater opportunities for health and safety -- things like safe access to parks and healthful housing -- the US sets a foundation for a healthier country. Prevention Diaries makes it clear that as the US works to ensure everyone can access medical services, we also must make health, not just health care, the ultimate goal "--