Surviving Health Care
A Manual for Patients and Their Families

This book is a tool to help patients and families deal rationally with the perplexing and often irrational world of healthcare.

Thomasine Kushner (Edited by)

9780521744416, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 March 2010

352 pages, 2 b/w illus.
23 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

"This book is an excellent resource for anyone with questions about accessing health care. The work is comprehensive and yet not overly technical. The editor includes chapters with numerous suggestions to prepare a health care consumer to address common health care issues. The central theme is for consumers to be informed so they can be more active in the treatment process as well as advocate for quality care. ..this book is an excellent resource for social work students, practitioners, and educators interested in medical social work. The material included in this book provides a comprehensive, but quick, reference on health care issues that can be used over and over again. This book also presents ethical issues that are central to the delivery of health care, which, given their complexity, can be used to stimulate further discussion."
--Dr. Ann M. Callahan, Lincoln Memorial University, Journal of Social Work, Values, and Ethics

This book serves as a tool to help patients and families deal rationally with the perplexing and often irrational world of healthcare. It covers the topics and addresses the challenges that experts in a variety of healthcare fields believe to be the most vital to meeting the challenges of decision-making when people feel most vulnerable. With contributions from leading healthcare specialists, Surviving Health Care: A Manual for Patients and their Families examines a wide array of topics, including advance planning for healthcare, medical emergencies, genetic testing, pain management, and care of elders. It is a unique resource that aims above all to help patients reach their best healthcare decisions.

1. Letter to patients: on becoming the 'good' patient and finding the 'right' doctor Leonard Groopman
2. Becoming an active member of your healthcare team William Norcross
3. Information that will help you with advance planning for your health care Mark Wicclair
4. What do you do now? Responding to medical emergencies Kenneth V. Iserson
5. What you need to know about medical errors Erica Friedman and Rosamond Rhodes
6. Being informed when you give consent to medical care Ben Rich
7. Beware of scorecards Rosamond Rhodes and James Strain
8. Transplantation 101: negotiating the system Aaron Spital and Steven Smith
9. When the illness is psychiatric Leonard Groopman
10. On the horizon: genetic testing Robyn Shapiro
11. To be or not to be - a research subject? Eric Meslin and Peter Schwartz
12. Information that will help you make health care decisions for adult family members Mark Wicclair
13. Caring for individuals with Alzheimer's Robyn Shapiro
14. When the patient is a child Timothy Yeh
15. Care of elders Claudia Landau and Guy Micco
16. Being and thinking Hina Singh, Claudia Jacova, Paul Ford, and Judy Illes
17. Your guide to pain management Ben Rich
18. The hardest decisions: when treatment stops working Timothy Quill and Mindy Shah
19. What you need to know about disasters Griffin Trotter
20. Making the internet work for you: researching your health questions Bette Anton.

Subject Areas: Medical ethics & professional conduct [MBDC], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]