| Edition |
1st ed. |
| Description |
xii, 315 pages : portrait ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-294) and index. |
| Summary |
Americans have always thought their healthcare system was the best in the world. But starting in the late 1990s, shocking reports emerged that showed this was far from the truth. Treatment-related deaths or complications were found to be the fifth leading cause of death for Americans, and hundreds of thousands of patients were being harmed by botched medical procedures. Spurred by the quality crisis, a group of visionary physicians led by Donald Berwick and Paul Batalden embarked on a study of industrial quality improvement techniques, daring to apply them to the practice of medicine despite resistance from the medical community. The Best Practice tells the story of this burgeoning movement, and of how the medical landscape is being radically transformed--for the better. |
| Contents |
Inside cover: "Traditionally in medicine, the doctor is infallible,admission of fault is discouraged, and the idea of collecting data about who performs the best surgery is unthinkable. In the meantime, patients wait for hours in "emergency" rooms, filling out the same medical history paperwork at each visit, while running the increasingly real risk of being dosed with the wrong medication, having the wrong limb amputated, or suffering from a deadly hospital acquired infection. As many as 98,000 people die from preventable medical errors of each year, while Americans on average get only half the care they need...Change is in the air. The health care quality crisis has spurred a quiet revolution among a group of dedicated physicians...thousands of health care practitioners are over-turning years of arrogance and ignorance to put their focus on where it should have been in the first place: the patients." |
| Subject |
Medical care -- Quality control.
|
|
Medical care -- Quality control. |
|
Medicine -- Practice.
|
|
Medicine -- Practice. |
|
Medical care. |
| ISBN |
9781586486198 |
|
1586486195 |
|
