Man's 4th Best Hospital


Book Description

The sequel to the highly acclaimed The House of God. Years later, the Fat Man has been given leadership over a new Future of Medicine Clinic at what is now only Man's 4th Best Hospital, and has persuaded Dr. Roy Basch and some of his intern cohorts to join him to teach a new generation of interns and residents.




To Err Is Human


Book Description

Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 people die in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That's more than die from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDSâ€"three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors than from workplace injuries. Add the financial cost to the human tragedy, and medical error easily rises to the top ranks of urgent, widespread public problems. To Err Is Human breaks the silence that has surrounded medical errors and their consequenceâ€"but not by pointing fingers at caring health care professionals who make honest mistakes. After all, to err is human. Instead, this book sets forth a national agendaâ€"with state and local implicationsâ€"for reducing medical errors and improving patient safety through the design of a safer health system. This volume reveals the often startling statistics of medical error and the disparity between the incidence of error and public perception of it, given many patients' expectations that the medical profession always performs perfectly. A careful examination is made of how the surrounding forces of legislation, regulation, and market activity influence the quality of care provided by health care organizations and then looks at their handling of medical mistakes. Using a detailed case study, the book reviews the current understanding of why these mistakes happen. A key theme is that legitimate liability concerns discourage reporting of errorsâ€"which begs the question, "How can we learn from our mistakes?" Balancing regulatory versus market-based initiatives and public versus private efforts, the Institute of Medicine presents wide-ranging recommendations for improving patient safety, in the areas of leadership, improved data collection and analysis, and development of effective systems at the level of direct patient care. To Err Is Human asserts that the problem is not bad people in health careâ€"it is that good people are working in bad systems that need to be made safer. Comprehensive and straightforward, this book offers a clear prescription for raising the level of patient safety in American health care. It also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care that they receive once they check into the hospital. This book will be vitally important to federal, state, and local health policy makers and regulators, health professional licensing officials, hospital administrators, medical educators and students, health caregivers, health journalists, patient advocatesâ€"as well as patients themselves. First in a series of publications from the Quality of Health Care in America, a project initiated by the Institute of Medicine




Hospital


Book Description

A bestselling author and award winning journalist follows a year in the life of a big urban hospital, painting a revealing portrait of how medical care is delivered in America today Most people agree that there are complicated issues at play in the delivery of health care today, but those issues may not always be what we think they are. In 2005, Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, unveiled a new state-of-theart, multimillion-dollar cancer center. Determined to understand the whole spectrum of factors that determine what kind of medical care people receive in this country, bestselling author Julie Salamon spent one year tracking the progress of the center and getting to know the characters who make the hospital run. Located in a community where sixty-seven different languages are spoken, Maimonides is a case study for the particular kinds of concerns that arise in institutions that serve an increasingly multicultural American demographic. Granted an astonishing “warts and all” level of access by the hospital higher-ups, Salamon followed the doctors, patients, administrators, nurses, ambulance drivers, cooks, and cleaning staff. She explored not just the action on the ground—what happens between doctors and patients—but also the financial, ethical, technological, sociological, and cultural matters that the hospital community encounters every day. Drawing on her skills as interviewer, observer, and social critic, Salamon presents the story of modern medicine, uniquely viewed from the vantage point of those who make it run. She draws out the internal and external political machinations that exist between doctors and staff as well as between hospital and community. And she grounds the science and emotion of medical drama in the financial realities of operating a huge, private institution that must contend with issues like adapting to the specific needs of immigrant groups that make up a large and growing portion of our society. Salamon exposes struggles of both the profound and humdrum variety. There are bitter internal feuds, warm personal connections, comedy, egoism, greed, love, and loss. There are rabbinic edicts to contend with as well as imams and herbalists and local politicians. There are system foul-ups that keep blood test results from being delivered on time, careless record keepers, shortages of everything except forms to fill, recalcitrant and greedy insurance reimbursement systems, and the surprising difficulty of getting doctors to wash their hands. This is the dynamic universe of small and large concerns and personalities that, taken together, determine the nature of our care and assume the utmost importance. As Martin Payson—chairman of the board at Maimonides and ex-Time-Warner vice chairman—puts it: “Hospitals have a lot in common with the movie business. You’ve got your talent, entrepreneurs, ambition, ego stroking, the business versus the creative part. The big difference is that in the hospital you don’t get second takes. Movies are make-believe. This is real life.”




Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?


Book Description

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this moving, poignant novel by the bestselling author of Birds of America—and a master of American fiction—we share a grown woman’s bittersweet nostalgia for the wildness of her youth. "An enchanting novel." —The New York Times The summer Berie was fifteen, she and her best friend Sils had jobs at Storyland in upstate New York where Berie sold tickets to see the beautiful Sils portray Cinderella in a strapless evening gown. They spent their breaks smoking, joking, and gossiping. After work they followed their own reckless rules, teasing the fun out of small town life, sleeping in the family station wagon, and drinking borrowed liquor from old mayonnaise jars. But no matter how wild, they always managed to escape any real danger—until the adoring Berie sees that Sils really does need her help—and then everything changes.




Operation Ironman


Book Description

..".George's books just keep getting better..." ..".laugh out loud funny (note to self, don't read it on the tube)..." ..".it won't fail to entertain, enthral and motivate..." ..".hilarious and heart-warming..." ..".inspiring, poignant and humorous..." ..".I laughed, I cried, and am proud of a man I have never met..." Operation Ironman follows George Mahood's inspiring and entertaining journey from a hospital bed to an Ironman triathlon. After major surgery to remove a spinal cord tumour, George set himself the ultimate challenge - a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run, all to be completed within 16 hours. He couldn't swim more than a length of front crawl, he had never ridden a proper road bike, and he had not run further than 10k in 18 months. He had four months to prepare. Could he do it?




Mount Misery


Book Description

From the Laws of Mount Misery: There are no laws in psychiatry. Now, from the author of the riotous, moving, bestselling classic, The House of God, comes a lacerating and brilliant novel of doctors and patients in a psychiatric hospital. Mount Misery is a prestigious facility set in the rolling green hills of New England, its country club atmosphere maintained by generous corporate contributions. Dr. Roy Basch (hero of The House of God) is lucky enough to train there *only to discover doctors caught up in the circus of competing psychiatric theories, and patients who are often there for one main reason: they've got good insurance. From the Laws of Mount Misery: Your colleagues will hurt you more than your patients. On rounds at Mount Misery, it's not always easy for Basch to tell the patients from the doctors: Errol Cabot, the drug cowboy whose practice provides him with guinea pigs for his imaginative prescription cocktails . . . Blair Heiler, the world expert on borderlines (a diagnosis that applies to just about everybody) . . . A. K. Lowell, née Aliyah K. Lowenschteiner, whose Freudian analytic technique is so razor sharp it prohibits her from actually speaking to patients . . . And Schlomo Dove, the loony, outlandish shrink accused of having sex with a beautiful, well-to-do female patient. From the Laws of Mount Misery: Psychiatrists specialize in their defects. For Basch the practice of psychiatry soon becomes a nightmare in which psychiatrists compete with one another to find the best ways to reduce human beings to blubbering drug-addled pods, or incite them to an extreme where excessive rage is the only rational response, or tie them up in Freudian knots. And all the while, the doctors seem less interested in their patients' mental health than in a host of other things *managed care insurance money, drug company research grants and kickbacks, and their own professional advancement. From the Laws of Mount Misery: In psychiatry, first comes treatment, then comes diagnosis. What The House of God did for doctoring the body, Mount Misery does for doctoring the mind. A practicing psychiatrist, Samuel Shem brings vivid authenticity and extraordinary storytelling gifts to this long-awaited sequel, to create a novel that is laugh-out-loud hilarious, terrifying, and provocative. Filled with biting irony and a wonderful sense of the absurd, Mount Misery tells you everything you'll never learn in therapy. And it's a hell of a lot funnier.




Intelligent Medicine


Book Description

For the 74 million people in their late thirties and early forties, Intelligent Medicine presents the complete spectrum of health-care options. Ronald Hoffman, who specializes in integrating conventional and alternative medicine, discusses each major system in the body and offers preventive techniques and treatment options for common ailments in Intelligent Medicine.




It's Kind of a Funny Story


Book Description

Like many ambitious New York City teenagers, Craig Gilner sees entry into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School as the ticket to his future. Determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job—Craig studies night and day to ace the entrance exam, and does. That's when things start to get crazy. At his new school, Craig realizes that he isn't brilliant compared to the other kids; he's just average, and maybe not even that. He soon sees his once-perfect future crumbling away.




Hospital Warrior


Book Description

When someone you love is hospitalized, it can be scary-even terrifying-for the patient and for family and friends. A hospital may seem like a foreign land. Sounds, smells, and the culture are unfamiliar; even the medical terminology sounds like a different language. Understanding the hospital environment and knowing how to navigate its complicated pathways can make you a strong champion for your loved one. You are as critical to your loved one's recovery as the doctors and nurses. Your role is different, but vital. In some cases, you can make the difference between life and death. Hospital Warrior de-mystifies the process and provides the tools, understanding and insight you need to get the best care for your loved one. Based on Bonnie Friedman's own experiences fighting for her husband's healthcare needs for more than 24 years and through 14 separate hospitalizations, Hospital Warrior lays out in direct, simple terms hard-learned and time-tested tactics to help ensure a loved one's medical needs are met. Hospital Warrior also includes checklists and interviews with doctors and other healthcare professionals who provide essential tips and advice for the reader. If you have a loved one in the hospital, don't leave home without this book. Praise for Hospital Warrior "Hospital Warrior isn't just about advocating; it's about saving lives. Bonnie Friedman delves deep into the hospital setting, and provides valuable insights, wisdom and tips to help readers get the best possible medical care for the ones they love. She knows what she's talking about and it shows. Read her book before someone you know has to go to the hospital." -- Heidi Godman, health journalist, host of Health Check with Heidi Godman on WSRQ-FM, Sarasota, FL. "Hospital Warrior is more than a how-to book on how to advocate for a loved one. It is like having a smart, savvy friend with you every step of the way, helping you get the best hospital care for someone you love. Bonnie Friedman has learned the ropes, and she'll help you learn them too." - Mindy Utay, LCSW, JD, couples and family therapist, psychoanalyst, writer, lecturer, official blogger for the Huffington Post "Ms. Friedman has assembled a well-researched guide to help family and friends navigate the complex environment of modern hospitals. Packed with helpful information, Hospital Warrior was invaluable to me during my husband's three-week stay in intensive care following heart surgery that led to a stroke. The book helped me decipher medical terms, understand treatments and identify appropriate questions to ask amidst the emotional turmoil I faced when my husband was seriously ill. The extensive reference section was also helpful as my husband passed through acute rehab to sub-acute care during recovery." - Susan Fleming, Annandale, VA




Pocket Medicine


Book Description

Prepared by residents and attending physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital, this pocket-sized looseleaf is one of the best-selling references for medical students, interns, and residents on the wards and candidates reviewing for internal medicine board exams. In bulleted lists, tables, and algorithms, Pocket Medicine provides key clinical information about common problems in internal medicine, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, gastroenterology, nephrology, hematology-oncology, infectious diseases, endocrinology, and rheumatology. This Fifth Edition is fully updated and includes a sixteen-page color insert with key and classic abnormal images. If you purchased a copy of Sabatine: Pocket Medicine 5e, ISBN 978-1-4511-8237-8, please make note of the following important correction on page 1-36: Oral anticoagulation ( Chest 2012;141: e531S; EHJ 2012;33:2719; Circ 2013;127:1916)- All valvular AF as stroke risk very high- Nonvalv. AF: stroke risk 4.5%/y; anticoag (R) 68% ̄ stroke; use a risk score to guide Rx: CHADS2: CHF (1 point), HTN (1), A ge >= 75 y (1), DM (1), prior Stroke/TIA (2)CHA2DS2-VASc: adds 65-74 y (1) >=75 y (2), vasc dis. [MI, Ao plaque, or PAD (1)]; ? (1)score 32 (R) anticoag; score 1 (R) consider anticoag or ASA (? latter reasonable if risk factor age 65-74 y, vasc dis. or ?); antithrombotic Rx even if rhythm control [SCORE CORRECTED]- Rx options: factor Xa or direct thrombin inhib (non-valv only; no monitoring required) or warfarin (INR 2-3; w/ UFH bridge if high risk of stroke); if Pt refuses anticoag, considerASA + clopi or, even less effective, ASA alone ( NEJM 2009;360:2066)Please make note of this correction in your copy of Sabatine: Pocket Medicine 5e immediately and contact LWW's Customer Service Department at 1.800.638.3030 or 1.301.223.2300 so that you may be issued a corrected page 1-36. You may also download a PDF of page 1-36 by clicking HERE. All copies of Pocket Medicine, 5e with the ISBN: 978-1-4511-9378-7 include this correction.