Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 326
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-4422-1060-8 • Paperback • June 2012 • $19.95 • (£14.99)
978-1-4422-1061-5 • eBook • August 2011 • $62.50 • (£48.00)
Steven Z. Kussin, M.D., is the founder of the Shared Decision Center of Central New York. He has published scholarly articles in several journals, has been in practice for more than thirty years, and has taught at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has an international following on his blog MedicalAdvocate.com.
Epigraph
Section I:War: The Battle of Medical Epistemologies
Section II: A Medical Day
Chapter 1. The Office
Chapter 2. The Hospital
Chapter 3. Medical On Call
Chapter 4. The Emergency Room
Section III: Choosing Your Doctor
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Medical School Experience
Chapter 3. Brains
Chapter 4. Communication
Chapter 5. Empathy
Chapter 6. Style
Chapter 7. Second Opinions
Section IV: Choosing Your Hospital
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Staying local
Chapter 3. Abandon Ship!
Chapter 4. Searching for solutions
Section V: Hospital Dangers and How To Prevent Them
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Medication errors
Chapter 3. Hospital acquired infections
Chapter 4. Isolation
Appendix: Best Medical Websites
Primers on how to get the best possible medical care can be boring. This one is not. It opens dramatically, with a teenage driver crashing into the author's car, which ended his 30 years in clinical practice as a doctor and turned him into a patient. This experience, not just his status as a physician, gives Kussin automatic credibility before he launches into how to choose a doctor and a hospital (the best physician is more important than a big-name medical center) and how to prevent disasters (constant vigilance). Kussin can be scary: 'From the moment you arrive until the second you leave, your hospital, any hospital, is the most unsafe environment most of you will ever enter.' Kussin's list of possible errors is a long one: accidental punctures during surgery, infections, identity mistakes, and medication errors (six percent of in hospital deaths are, in part, drug-related). He offers advice about how to prevent each horror and reminds us that doctors and insurance companies make mistakes. Kussin's advice: 'Be nice, be courteous, but be persistent.' This book can save lives.
— Booklist, Starred Review
After a traumatic automobile accident put an end to his career, Dr. Kussin, once a successful gastroenterologist, took on the role of patient, undergoing several surgeries, was confined to a wheelchair and faced prolonged rehabilitation. Although he was regarded as a medical professional by the doctors and nurses who treated him, his long stay in the hospital gave him a new perspective on the problems faced by ordinary patients and their families who are frequently out of the loop on important decisions. He became a close observer of medical errors in his own treatment but more so in that of others patients. According to Kussin's findings, hundreds of thousands die, or are injured each year from preventable error and infection. High on the list is the failure of medical professionals simply to wash their hands and maintain a sanitary environment. As a solution, Kussin recommends a number of low-cost sites where useful medical information can be found. He also discusses criteria for choosing a doctor and a hospital and he reviews the problem of pharmaceutical over-kill. Aimed at those who are well covered by insurance, Kussin offers invaluable advice to help patients and their families be proactive and become their own medical advocates.
— Publishers Weekly
The American medical system is a vast, sprawling, complicated thing. It is barely understandable to the physicians who work in it, and totally bewildering to the majority of patients who must use it. Dr. Kussin's book is a hard-headed, practical user's guide for people who want to know how our complicated and messy system works day-to-day in doctors' offices and hospitals. It shows readers how to be savvy, how to be their own best advocate in getting good care and avoiding bad care-in short, how to become proficient in the art of what Dr. Kussin aptly calls "patienthood."
— Christopher M. Johnson M.D., author of How Your Child Heals: An Inside Look at Common Childhood Ailments
Dr. Kussin writes a riveting story of the stark reality when a doctor becomes a patient. He offers advice from both sides of the bedrails on how to navigate a complex system and get the care you need.
— Rosemary Gibson
We're often told these days that we need to advocate for ourselves in the health care arena, but those of us who have tried know that we're likely to end up feeling like David (without his sling). In Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now, Dr. Steven Z. Kussin has given us scores of valuable tools we can use to protect our own health as we encounter the complex health care system. In the bargain, he has also given us a passionate, articulate, and often laugh-out-loud funny book. Doctors as well as patients should read this.
— Tom Cathcart, author of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar and Heidegger and a Hippo Walk through Those Pearly Gates
So many "smart patient" books are penned by physicians, intending to teach patients what doctors prefer patients do in order to make their doctor jobs easier. But this book is different. Instead it reveals behind-the-scenes, and sometimes unsettling inside information allowing us patients a glimpse at why the system operates the way it does so we can learn to overcome obstacles to the care we truly deserve.
— About.Com