The Truth About Big Medicine: Righting the Wrongs for Better Health Care

(Hardback)

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Description

Many Americans believe that their healthcare is second to none. Most patients, therefore, fail to appreciate the flaws and dangers present while receiving medical care. In fact, the American healthcare industry is one of the great tragedies of this country, which is now being brought to its knees by the medical industry run amuck. The Truth About Big Medicine: Righting the Wrongs for Better Healthcare divulges secrets of the industry, which keep it focused on its own economic needs to the detriment of public health. The cost of American healthcare per person far exceeds other developed countries, yet it delivers life expectancies and infant mortalities that are ranked shamefully low among developed nations. Special interest groups and weak legislation created a tapeworm that continues to devour the American economy and shorten the lives of hundreds of thousands each year. Using true stories throughout, the authors illustrate that it is time for the public, students, educators, and legislators to recognize medical deception and secrecy, and to consider clear solutions on how they can achieve a safer healthcare system. A rich variety of authors with experience in revealing unsafe medical practices bring recommendations for changing healthcare delivery by taking an aspect of the healthcare system, identifying its shortcomings, and proposing ways to reduce harm plus correct the injustices. Included are discussions of imaging, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, hospital practices and procedures, and medical malpractice and negligence, among other topics. No consumer of health care should ignore the dangers inherent in the system; this book helps reveal them and suggests useful remedies. The authors maintain a website at http://truthaboutbigmedicine.com/

Reviews

It may sound incongruous, but medical treatment can be harmful to your health. One estimate in the year 2000 ranked medical care as the third leading cause of death, trailing only heart disease and cancer! The Institute of Medicine quotes 1.5 million preventable detrimental drug events annually in the U.S., and the CDC figures that more than 700,000 hospital-acquired infections occur each year. In this multi-authored book promoting patient empowerment, legislative activism, and reform, health care in the U.S. is painted as too risky, frequently unnecessary, and way too costly. Topics include dangerous drugs and medical devices, hospital-acquired infections, lax licensing and credentialing of doctors, peer review problems, and difficulty in obtaining information about physician discipline and malpractice history from the National Practitioner Data Bank. When medical mistakes do occur, truth telling is essential; at times, an apology is necessary. Acceptance of evidence-based medical guidelines by all practicing physicians is vital. * Booklist *
An inspiring and gripping series of tragedies, heroes, and common-sense solutions to healthcares dilemma. -- Marty Makary, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins surgeon and New York Times best-selling author of Unaccountable
The Truth About Big Medicine exposes some of the truths about big medicine: the fragmentation of services, the regulatory gaps and inconsistencies, and the lapses in the provision of high quality care. Through the lens of consumer protection and patient-centeredness the authors delineate ways to open up and improve the U.S health care system using greater transparency and disclosure. -- Carolyn Long Engelhard, MPA, director of Health Policy Program, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia School of Medicine
The authors have provided a thoughtful and well documented account of many lapses occurring in America's troubled health delivery system. This is tempered with a series of common sense recommendations whereby patients and society can rightfully expect improvements and hold accountable those professionals whose practices cause untold injuries and deaths. This book is a must read for all who seek a more responsible and accountable healthcare system. -- Aaron Liberman, Ph.D., LHRM, professor of health services administration, University of Central Florida

Author Bio

Cheryl Brown, DBA, RN, U.S. Army Nurse retired, serves as an Army Medical Command Patient Safety Nurse Consultant for patient safety managers assisting with Sentinel Event root cause analysis and providing feedback for process improvement. She served as Commander of a Combat Support Hospital and is a trauma nurse veteran of the Persian Gulf War. She contributed clinical expertise for a ground nurse character in the book Centerline. She completed research on Automated Dispensing Cabinet Improvements Implemented in Army Hospitals to Decrease Medication Errors and is a coauthor for "Overcoming Benchmarking Reluctance: A Literature Review" (Benchmarking: An International Journal, 2012). John T. James, PhD, is the former chief toxicologist at a federal agency where he received numerous meritorious awards and wrote many book chapters and monographs dealing with spaceflight safety. As a result of the loss of his oldest son to medical errors in 2002, he has become a patient safety activist, having published a book in 2007 about his sons care (A Sea of Broken Hearts) and proposing a national patient bill of rights to empower and protect patients. He publishes a monthly electronic newsletter on patient safety issues and has been appointed to the State of Texas Healthcare Acquired Infection and Preventable Adverse Event Advisory Panel. He just published an evidence-based, peer-reviewed study in a medical journal in which he estimated that more than 400,000 Americans have their lives shortened by medical errors in hospitals. He founded Patient Safety America, whose website is http://PatientSafetyAmerica.com.