Prepare to Defend Yourself ... How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life


Book Description

Do you really need to pay that outstanding balance with the hospital? Do you know the differences between a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant, a physician, and a paramedic? Did you realize that not all hospitals can treat your stroke, heart attack, or trauma with equal speed and effectiveness? How should you negotiate and appeal a hospital charge? Can you do anything to minimize the medical mistakes that your provider might commit? In Prepare to Defend Yourself . . . How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life, Matthew Minson, a physician and disaster medicine and healthcare policy expert, pulls back the examination room curtain on the healthcare system, empowering patients and their families to become proactive and knowledgeable users of medical services. Written in a humorous, patient-friendly style and loaded with the author’s cartoons and other visual aids, this essential consumer’s guide to modern healthcare provides down-to-earth, accurate advice that any reader can use, whether preparing for surgery, dialing 911, or simply getting a prescription filled.




Prepare to Defend Yourself . . . How to Age Gracefully and Escape with Your Dignity


Book Description

The author of Prepare to Defend Yourself… How to Navigate the Healthcare System and Escape with Your Life is back. This time Matthew Minson, MD, turns a penetrating and whimsical eye on the medical and social aspects of aging in Prepare to Defend Yourself…How to Age Gracefully and Escape with Your Dignity. While seeming to simultaneously channel a combination of Benjamin Franklin and Charles Schulz, Dr. Minson goes after bodily changes, behaviors—good and bad, and what everyone can do to make life more bearable and—dare we say it—fun after fifty. Laced with his unique style of poignancy and humor and peppered with his own surrealistically funny cartoons, the book bravely takes on health, finances, sex, diet, exercise, death, the law, and what you can do to protect what matters most as you age. It’s life, liberty, and the pursuit of a chuckle in this groundbreaking book that just might make you look forward to your golden years. For anyone of any age who plans on aging with their dignity intact, this is the book for you.




Which Country Has the World's Best Health Care?


Book Description

The preeminent doctor and bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel is repeatedly asked one question: Which country has the best healthcare? He set off to find an answer. The US spends more than any other nation, nearly $4 trillion, on healthcare. Yet, for all that expense, the US is not ranked #1 -- not even close. In Which Country Has the World's Best Healthcare? Ezekiel Emanuel profiles eleven of the world's healthcare systems in pursuit of the best or at least where excellence can be found. Using a unique comparative structure, the book allows healthcare professionals, patients, and policymakers alike to know which systems perform well, and why, and which face endemic problems. From Taiwan to Germany, Australia to Switzerland, the most inventive healthcare providers tackle a global set of challenges -- in pursuit of the best healthcare in the world.




I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die


Book Description

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.




Preparing for Pandemics in the Modern World


Book Description

The Black Death. Cholera. Spanish flu. Swine flu. HIV/AIDS. COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2. Each of these pandemics has made (or, is making) a lasting impact on humanity. From the immediate mental image of the beaked masks worn in the Middle Ages (bubonic plague) and the birth of epidemiology (cholera) to recognizing the benefits of social distancing (1918 flu) and the harm of prejudice and misinformation (HIV/AIDS), pandemics have shown us how to survive infectious disease, as long as we heed their lessons. Preparing for Pandemics in the Modern World, edited by Christine Crudo Blackburn, brings together experts on pandemic preparedness and biosecurity to explore areas of weakness in pandemic prevention, preparedness, detection, and response. Even as COVID-19 makes its way around the world, leaders and policymakers are tasked with thinking ahead and preparing to effectively respond to the next such event—which experience shows us to be a matter of “when,” not “if.” Inside, chapters are divided into sections on the lessons learned from the 1918 influenza pandemic, the application of the One Health concept, and the role of the private sector in responding to potentially devastating disease outbreaks. A chapter on the impacts of supply chain disruption—in light of COVID-19—and an epilogue that discusses the current outbreak make Preparing for Pandemics in the Modern World a timely and accessibly written compilation on pandemic prevention, preparedness, detection, and response.




Ask a Manager


Book Description

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together




The Empowered Patient


Book Description

The facts are alarming: Medical errors kill more people each year than AIDS, breast cancer, or car accidents. A doctor’s relationship with pharmaceutical companies may influence his choice of drugs for you. The wrong key word on an insurance claim can deny you coverage. Through real life stories, including her own, and shrewd advice, CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen shows you how to become your own advocate and navigate the minefield of today’s health-care system. But there’s good news. Discover how to • find a doctor who “gets” you and listens to you • ask the right questions for the best treatment • make the most out of a short office visit • cut out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs • harness the power of the Internet for medical issues • fight back when claims are denied Combining the personal stories of patients across America with crucial advice on receiving the best possible health care, this guide will enable you to confront an often confusing and perilous system—and come out ahead.




Hospital and Healthcare Security


Book Description

Hospital and Healthcare Security, Fifth Edition, examines the issues inherent to healthcare and hospital security, including licensing, regulatory requirements, litigation, and accreditation standards. Building on the solid foundation laid down in the first four editions, the book looks at the changes that have occurred in healthcare security since the last edition was published in 2001. It consists of 25 chapters and presents examples from Canada, the UK, and the United States. It first provides an overview of the healthcare environment, including categories of healthcare, types of hospitals, the nonhospital side of healthcare, and the different stakeholders. It then describes basic healthcare security risks/vulnerabilities and offers tips on security management planning. The book also discusses security department organization and staffing, management and supervision of the security force, training of security personnel, security force deployment and patrol activities, employee involvement and awareness of security issues, implementation of physical security safeguards, parking control and security, and emergency preparedness. Healthcare security practitioners and hospital administrators will find this book invaluable. - Practical support for healthcare security professionals, including operationally proven policies, and procedures - Specific assistance in preparing plans and materials tailored to healthcare security programs - Summary tables and sample forms bring together key data, facilitating ROI discussions with administrators and other departments - General principles clearly laid out so readers can apply the industry standards most appropriate to their own environment NEW TO THIS EDITION: - Quick-start section for hospital administrators who need an overview of security issues and best practices




New Scientist


Book Description




Five Days at Memorial


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The award-winning book that inspired an Apple Original series from Apple TV+ • A landmark investigation of patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital ravaged by Hurricane Katrina—and the suspenseful portrayal of the quest for truth and justice—from a Pulitzer Prize–winning physician and reporter “An amazing tale, as inexorable as a Greek tragedy and as gripping as a whodunit.”—Dallas Morning News After Hurricane Katrina struck and power failed, amid rising floodwaters and heat, exhausted staff at Memorial Medical Center designated certain patients last for rescue. Months later, a doctor and two nurses were arrested and accused of injecting some of those patients with life-ending drugs. Five Days at Memorial, the culmination of six years of reporting by Pulitzer Prize winner Sheri Fink, unspools the mystery, bringing us inside a hospital fighting for its life and into the most charged questions in health care: which patients should be prioritized, and can health care professionals ever be excused for hastening death? Transforming our understanding of human nature in crisis, Five Days at Memorial exposes the hidden dilemmas of end-of-life care and reveals how ill-prepared we are for large-scale disasters—and how we can do better. ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Entertainment Weekly, Christian Science Monitor, Kansas City Star WINNER: National Book Critics Circle Award, J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Ridenhour Book Prize, American Medical Writers Association Medical Book Award, National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Award