The state of health care in this country is routinely discussed in the media, at the office, and around the kitchen table. Yet as consumers of medical care, Americans often blindly accept medical advice that may or may not be relevant or even appropriate. Doctor, Your Patient Will See You Now is meant to turn on its head the old notion that medical care is dictated by the doctors who offer advice. Today, it's all about the patients who receive it. Bias, financial incentives, and preventable medical error are common to the point of inevitability and have proven resistant to reform. Patients increasingly and correctly feel that they are on their own in a large, bewildering, impersonal, and dangerous medical system. Offering an insider's perspective, Dr. Kussin provides the tools readers need to make informed decisions about their care, as well as the confidence to question their doctor's advice, seek out additional information, and discern the best path for their care. With this book, readers learn how to maintain a professional approach that, rather than straining the doctor-patient relationship, makes it stronger and more cooperative.
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.
Table of Contents
Preface: The Process of Caring ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Part I War: The Battle of Medical Epistemologies 1
Part II A Medical Day 29
1 The Office 31
2 The Hospital 52
3 Medical On-Call 80
4 The Emergency Room 99
Part III Choosing Your Doctor 113
5 Introduction 115
6 College and Medical School: Setting the Stage 118
7 Brains 122
8 Communication 137
9 Empathy 162
10 Style 172
11 Second Opinions 177
Part IV Choosing Your Hospital 187
12 Introduction 189
13 Staying Local 192
14 Abandon Ship! 201
15 Searching for Solutions 207
Part V Hospital Dangers and How to Prevent Them 221
16 Introduction 223
17 Medication Errors 229
18 Hospital-Acquired Infections 240
19 Isolation 254
Appendix: Best Medical Websites 261
Notes 271
Bibliography 291
Index 293
About the Author 307
What People are Saying About This
Tom Cathcart
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.
Rosemary Gibson
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.
Christopher M. Johnson
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.
