Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them

Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them PDF Author: Joe Graedon
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 0307460924
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
A primary care doctor is skeptical of his patient’s concerns. A hospital nurse or intern is unaware of a drug’s potential side effects. A physician makes the most “common” diagnosis while overlooking the signs of a rarer and more serious illness, and the patient doesn’t see the necessary specialist until it’s too late. A pharmacist dispenses the wrong drug and a patient dies as a result. Sadly, these kinds of mistakes happen all the time. Each year, 6.1 million Americans are harmed by diagnostic mistakes, drug disasters, and medical treatments. A decade ago, the Institute of Medicine estimated that up to 98,000 people died in hospitals each year from preventable medical errors. And new research from the University of Utah, HealthGrades of Denver, and elsewhere suggests the toll is much higher. Patient advocates and bestselling authors Joe and Teresa Graedon came face-to-face with the tragic consequences of doctors’ screwups when Joe’s mother died in Duke Hospital—one of the best in the world—due to a disastrous series of entirely preventable errors. In Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, the Graedons expose the most common medical mistakes, from doctor’s offices and hospitals to the pharmacy counters and nursing homes. Patients across the country shared their riveting horror stories, and doctors recounted the disastrous—and sometimes deadly—consequences of their colleagues’ oversights and errors. While many patients feel vulnerable and dependent on their health care providers, this book is a startling wake-up call to how wrong doctors can be. The good news is that we can protect ourselves, and our loved ones, by being educated and vigilant medical consumers. The Graedons give patients the specific, practical steps they need to take to ensure their safety: the questions to ask a specialist before getting a final diagnosis, tips for promoting good communication with your doctor, presurgery checklists, how to avoid deadly drug interactions, and much more. Whether you’re sick or healthy, young or old, a parent of a young child, or caring for an elderly loved one, Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them is an eye-opening look at the medical mistakes that can truly affect any of us—and an empowering guide that explains what we can do about it.

Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them

Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them PDF Author: Joe Graedon
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 0307460924
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Get Book Here

Book Description
A primary care doctor is skeptical of his patient’s concerns. A hospital nurse or intern is unaware of a drug’s potential side effects. A physician makes the most “common” diagnosis while overlooking the signs of a rarer and more serious illness, and the patient doesn’t see the necessary specialist until it’s too late. A pharmacist dispenses the wrong drug and a patient dies as a result. Sadly, these kinds of mistakes happen all the time. Each year, 6.1 million Americans are harmed by diagnostic mistakes, drug disasters, and medical treatments. A decade ago, the Institute of Medicine estimated that up to 98,000 people died in hospitals each year from preventable medical errors. And new research from the University of Utah, HealthGrades of Denver, and elsewhere suggests the toll is much higher. Patient advocates and bestselling authors Joe and Teresa Graedon came face-to-face with the tragic consequences of doctors’ screwups when Joe’s mother died in Duke Hospital—one of the best in the world—due to a disastrous series of entirely preventable errors. In Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, the Graedons expose the most common medical mistakes, from doctor’s offices and hospitals to the pharmacy counters and nursing homes. Patients across the country shared their riveting horror stories, and doctors recounted the disastrous—and sometimes deadly—consequences of their colleagues’ oversights and errors. While many patients feel vulnerable and dependent on their health care providers, this book is a startling wake-up call to how wrong doctors can be. The good news is that we can protect ourselves, and our loved ones, by being educated and vigilant medical consumers. The Graedons give patients the specific, practical steps they need to take to ensure their safety: the questions to ask a specialist before getting a final diagnosis, tips for promoting good communication with your doctor, presurgery checklists, how to avoid deadly drug interactions, and much more. Whether you’re sick or healthy, young or old, a parent of a young child, or caring for an elderly loved one, Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them is an eye-opening look at the medical mistakes that can truly affect any of us—and an empowering guide that explains what we can do about it.

Top Screwups Doctors Make and how to Avoid Them

Top Screwups Doctors Make and how to Avoid Them PDF Author: Joe Graedon
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
ISBN: 0307460916
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
A primary care doctor is skeptical of his patient's concerns. A hospital nurse or intern is unaware of a drug's potential side effects. A physician makes the most "common" diagnosis while overlooking the signs of a rarer and more serious illness, and the patient doesn't see the necessary specialist until it's too late. A pharmacist dispenses the wrong drug and a patient dies as a result. Sadly, these kinds of mistakes happen all the time. Each year, 6.1 million Americans are harmed by diagnostic mistakes, drug disasters, and medical treatments. A decade ago, the Institute of Medicine estimated that up to 98,000 people died in hospitals each year from preventable medical errors. And new research from the University of Utah, HealthGrades of Denver, and elsewhere suggests the toll is much higher. Patient advocates and bestselling authors Joe and Teresa Graedon came face-to-face with the tragic consequences of doctors' screwups when Joe's mother died in Duke Hospital--one of the best in the world--due to a disastrous series of entirely preventable errors. In Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, the Graedons expose the most common medical mistakes, from doctor's offices and hospitals to the pharmacy counters and nursing homes. Patients across the country shared their riveting horror stories, and doctors recounted the disastrous--and sometimes deadly--consequences of their colleagues' oversights and errors. While many patients feel vulnerable and dependent on their health care providers, this book is a startling wake-up call to how wrong doctors can be. The good news is that we can protect ourselves, and our loved ones, by being educated and vigilant medical consumers. The Graedons give patients the specific, practical steps they need to take to ensure their safety: the questions to ask a specialist before getting a final diagnosis, tips for promoting good communication with your doctor, presurgery checklists, how to avoid deadly drug interactions, and much more. Whether you're sick or healthy, young or old, a parent of a young child, or caring for an elderly loved one, Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them is an eye-opening look at the medical mistakes that can truly affect any of us--and an empowering guide that explains what we can do about it.

The People's Pharmacy Quick and Handy Home Remedies

The People's Pharmacy Quick and Handy Home Remedies PDF Author: Joe Graedon
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1426208405
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
This National Geographic guide to healing foods and natural, herbal, home remedies is carefully researched by the authors and conveyed in the same friendly and authoritative personality as in their popular call-in radio show. In the book, organized as Q&As between the general public and the Graedons, they report how and why such treatments work and also offer a dozen new recipes for food so good for you, it serves as preventive medicine. This book contains as much information as a voluminous encyclopedia of home remedies, yet it's quick, easy, inviting, and fun to read. Presented alphabetically by ailment and then, within each of those, by food or remedy, the book offers the basics of three standard diets for health, weight control, and fitness, along with a dozen new recipes for preparing food to match the diets. It includes a helpful index and cross-referencing system, making the book both a good shelf reference and an entertaining browse. This book builds on the reputation of The People's Pharmacy and adds the extra value that comes from a partnership with National Geographic.

The People's Pharmacy Guide to Home and Herbal Remedies

The People's Pharmacy Guide to Home and Herbal Remedies PDF Author: Joe Graedon, MS
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312981396
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Book Description
*44% of adults take prescription medication. *1 in 5 also take herbal supplements. *15 million of these people are at risk for an adverse reaction. Are you one of them? Included in this powerful new book: *An A-Z handbook of common symptoms and ailments *Time-tested, Graedon-approved home and herbal remedies *An overview of the most popular herbs in the US, Europe, and Australia. *Over fifty monographs that detail the active ingredients, common uses, proper dosages, special precautions, adverse effects, and possible herb and drug interactions for each herb. *Resource listings of herbal web pages and products

Best Choices from the People's Pharmacy

Best Choices from the People's Pharmacy PDF Author: Joe Graedon
Publisher: Rodale Books
ISBN: 160529599X
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
From the trusted authors of the "People's Pharmacy" syndicated newspaper column comes Best Choices from the People's Pharmacy, an essential reference that empowers readers to make intelligent, informed choices from among the array of treatment options—home remedies, herbal and nutritional supplements, and prescription and over-the-counter drugs—available today We can read the newspaper for candid restaurant or movie reviews or consult Consumer Reports for an impartial analysis of the best buys on toasters or automobiles. But where can we find objective evaluations of popular treatments for conditions like arthritis, high cholesterol, and migraines? Joe and Teresa Graedon, the best-selling authors of The People's Pharmacy, will fill the void with a comprehensive new reference that presents all the information readers need to become savvy health-care consumers. The book offers: • best-choice treatments for 50 medical conditions—from allergies, asthma, and heartburn to high blood pressure and osteoporosis • a remedy ratings guide to compare the effectiveness and affordability of various treatment options • compelling new information on the potential dangers of generic drugs Featuring a list of the authors' must-have remedies and organized alphabetically by condition for fast, easy access, this trustworthy, practical guide should find a sizable and grateful audience.

This Life's Tempestuous Sea

This Life's Tempestuous Sea PDF Author: Douglas Charles Toland
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1481735152
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 551

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Book Description
In a weak moment, I have written a book. Margaret Mitchell This book is a multilayered creation that touches on a wide array of topics, many of them drawn from personal experiences. Indeed, you the lucky reader will be blessed with enough material for at least three books within one cover. Why would I want to write such a multi-themed book? It wasnt my original intention. Maybe Ive learned an important lesson and wont do so next time. Like many older folks, I wanted to share what I have learned to be true and useful and couldnt seem to stay with a single topic. Ive lived long enough to confirm an important realization: the gleanings from a well-lived life are at least as important as knowledge gained vicariously through reading and classroom attendance. But I think most people dont fully appreciate the value of their life lessons and end up taking most of them to the grave. I want to counter that pattern and use this book to share as many of my gleanings as I can. I also recognize several imminent dangers facing this nation and our planet and feel compelled to share these concerns. Just as important: I want my wife, children, and grandchildren to know more about who I was and who Ive come to be. I hope they will have occasions to use some of my wisdom.

Black Box Thinking

Black Box Thinking PDF Author: Matthew Syed
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 069840887X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Nobody wants to fail. But in highly complex organizations, success can happen only when we confront our mistakes, learn from our own version of a black box, and create a climate where it’s safe to fail. We all have to endure failure from time to time, whether it’s underperforming at a job interview, flunking an exam, or losing a pickup basketball game. But for people working in safety-critical industries, getting it wrong can have deadly consequences. Consider the shocking fact that preventable medical error is the third-biggest killer in the United States, causing more than 400,000 deaths every year. More people die from mistakes made by doctors and hospitals than from traffic accidents. And most of those mistakes are never made public, because of malpractice settlements with nondisclosure clauses. For a dramatically different approach to failure, look at aviation. Every passenger aircraft in the world is equipped with an almost indestructible black box. Whenever there’s any sort of mishap, major or minor, the box is opened, the data is analyzed, and experts figure out exactly what went wrong. Then the facts are published and procedures are changed, so that the same mistakes won’t happen again. By applying this method in recent decades, the industry has created an astonishingly good safety record. Few of us put lives at risk in our daily work as surgeons and pilots do, but we all have a strong interest in avoiding predictable and preventable errors. So why don’t we all embrace the aviation approach to failure rather than the health-care approach? As Matthew Syed shows in this eye-opening book, the answer is rooted in human psychology and organizational culture. Syed argues that the most important determinant of success in any field is an acknowledgment of failure and a willingness to engage with it. Yet most of us are stuck in a relationship with failure that impedes progress, halts innovation, and damages our careers and personal lives. We rarely acknowledge or learn from failure—even though we often claim the opposite. We think we have 20/20 hindsight, but our vision is usually fuzzy. Syed draws on a wide range of sources—from anthropology and psychology to history and complexity theory—to explore the subtle but predictable patterns of human error and our defensive responses to error. He also shares fascinating stories of individuals and organizations that have successfully embraced a black box approach to improvement, such as David Beckham, the Mercedes F1 team, and Dropbox.

Epidemic of Medical Errors and Hospital-Acquired Infections

Epidemic of Medical Errors and Hospital-Acquired Infections PDF Author: William Charney
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1420089293
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
Medical error as defined in Epidemic of Medical Errors and Hospital-Acquired Infections: Systemic and Social Causes encompasses many categories including, but not limited to, medical error, hospital-acquired infections, medication errors, deaths from misdiagnosis, deaths from infectious diarrhea in nursing homes, surgical and post-operative complications, lethal blood clots in veins, and excessive radiation from CT scans. When the deaths from these categories are counted they become the leading cause of fatality to Americans, outpacing cancer and heart disease. Add the numbers of fatalities (mortality) to the millions each year who are injured (morbidity) and whose quality of life is forever effected, and an epidemic of harm is defined. The book describes the many systemic and social causes of medical error and iatrogenic events, all of which are cited in the peer-review science, that have a direct effect on the epidemic of patient injury, but are rarely or never considered. These systemic causes include factory medicine (for-profit medicine), staffing ratios in clinical and non-clinical departments, shift work, healthcare working conditions, lack of accountability, legal issues that conflict with patient safety issues, bullying and hierarchical relationships, training of healthcare workers that never rises to the level of risk, and injury to healthcare workers. The premise of the book is that if the systemic or social causes are not considered or changed, then medical error will continue to be an epidemic and no substantial impact in the numbers will be realized. An expert with 30 years of experience as a health and safety officer in healthcare and as an activist for community health and safety issues, editor and author William Charney explores the issues surrounding medical errors and examines the science behind possible solutions. He presents an efficient dialogue that produces a more systemic exploration and targeting of the causes of medical error and drives an exacting message: we are dealing with an epidemic of harm, and unless systemic issues are solved, little will change to subdue the epidemic. Information on the June 2012 Conference on the Epidemic of Medical Errors & Hospital Acquired Infections in the US and Canada: the Systemic Causes can be found on the CRC Press Issuu page.

Our Bodies, Our Data

Our Bodies, Our Data PDF Author: Adam Tanner
Publisher: Beacon Press
ISBN: 0807033340
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
How the hidden trade in our sensitive medical information became a multibillion-dollar business, but has done little to improve our health-care outcomes Hidden to consumers, patient medical data has become a multibillion-dollar worldwide trade industry between our health-care providers, drug companies, and a complex web of middlemen. This great medical-data bazaar sells copies of the prescription you recently filled, your hospital records, insurance claims, blood-test results, and more, stripped of your name but possibly with identifiers such as year of birth, gender, and doctor. As computing grows ever more sophisticated, patient dossiers become increasingly vulnerable to reidentification and the possibility of being targeted by identity thieves or hackers. Paradoxically, comprehensive electronic files for patient treatment—the reason medical data exists in the first place—remain an elusive goal. Even today, patients or their doctors rarely have easy access to comprehensive records that could improve care. In the evolution of medical data, the instinct for profit has outstripped patient needs. This book tells the human, behind-the-scenes story of how such a system evolved internationally. It begins with New York advertising man Ludwig Wolfgang Frohlich, who founded IMS Health, the world’s dominant health-data miner, in the 1950s. IMS Health now gathers patient medical data from more than 45 billion transactions annually from 780,000 data feeds in more than 100 countries. Our Bodies, Our Data uncovers some of Frohlich’s hidden past and follows the story of what happened in the following decades. This is both a story about medicine and medical practice, and about big business and maximizing profits, and the places these meet, places most patients would like to believe are off-limits. Our Bodies, Our Data seeks to spark debate on how we can best balance the promise big data offers to advance medicine and improve lives while preserving the rights and interests of every patient. We, the public, deserve a say in this discussion. After all, it’s our data.

After the Error

After the Error PDF Author: Susan B. McIver,
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1770903585
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
In a series of true stories from across Canada, this collection seeks to point out the considerable human toll that medical errors cause. Victims of medical errors and their families who speak out often do so at considerable emotional, psychological, and financial expense. But their willingness to share their harrowing stories has helped to lay the foundation for numerous patient safety programs and continues to identify problems, provide solutions, and raise awareness. These emotional and moving stories underline serious issues with medical errors while empowering patients.