Health Smart: Hospital Handbook--Get In, Get Well, Go Home [Paperback]

Joseph Sacco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2003

Don't get sick during your hospital stay... A comprehensive guide to maximizing the benefits of a hospital stay and how to use the entire health care system, especially the doctor-patient relationship, to improve well-being.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph Sacco, M.D., earned his MD at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Since 1993, he has been the Medical Director for the Family Practice Inpatient Unit at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Center in New York City. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He is the author of Morphine, Ice Cream, Tears: Tales of a City Hospital, a true account of his internship at Montefiore Hospital in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592570755
• ISBN-13: 978-1592570751
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,144,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Essential Resource for Patients and Family., October 10, 2003

By 

Andrea Wolkenberg, PT, MA (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Health Smart: Hospital Handbook--Get In, Get Well, Go Home (Paperback)

As a clinician involved in patient care and discharge planning, I see every day the fear and upset people experience when they enter the hospital setting. They are strangers in a strange land, unfamiliar with "medicalese" jargon, institutional routine, policies and procedures, insurance issues and basic knowledge of the human body's complexity. Their bodies are failing, and, for the most part, their lives rest in the hands of strangers. In short they are terrified.

Joseph Sacco's Hospital Handbook goes a long way in demystifying the experience, and explaining to the lay person how to make sense of and negotiate the medical system. It is also an essential resource for understanding the most common diseases, ailments and conditions from which the hospitalized patient suffers, and their treatments.

Everyone knows that it is always best to be an educated consumer, regardless of the product. Health care is a universal product, and to remain ignorant on the subject could literally cost you your life. I keep Joseph Sacco's Hospital Handbook in both my personal and professional libraries. I refer patients to it constantly, and I have given away several copies as gifts to my most cherished friends.

In addition to patients or potential patients, I would recommend this book to hospital social workers, who are in the bizarre and uncomfortable position of being both the patient's advocate and the hospital's discharge planner. The information in the Hospital Handbook is invaluable to that often under-resourced group, who have to assist the hospitalized patient in making profound decisions about life during and after the hospital stay.
No hospital social worker should be without it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't Go In the Hospital Without This Book, September 22, 2003

By 

"suzieqz" (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Health Smart: Hospital Handbook--Get In, Get Well, Go Home (Paperback)

I bought this book when my father was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. It proved an invaluable tool in helping me undestand the maze of the in-hospital stay and, as a result, I was able to advocate much more effectively for my father, ensuring a safer, shorter hospital stay. It's packed full of concrete advice and written in an easy to understand conversational tone. I found the chapter on pain management to be especially helpful. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone anticipating a hospital stay or to the loved one of a patient already in the hospital.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It helped my Aunt survive her stay at the hospital, October 6, 2003

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Health Smart: Hospital Handbook--Get In, Get Well, Go Home (Paperback)

When my aunt was put in the hospital none of my family knew what to do for her, this book helped us through the whole thing. Even i understood it. We tried other books but they all made it so we had know idea what they were talking about it. (...)