6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Save your life or someone you love, July 2, 2009
This review is from: The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care-and Avoiding the Worst (Paperback)
As a physician, I strongly recommend that anyone should read and own this book who will visit a doctor, go to an emergency room, be in a hospital, see a specialist, undergo surgery or in any way interact with the health care system personally or on behalf of a family member. So that means everybody. Since this reviewer went to medical school in the 1970's we have had extraordinary and spectacular innovations in medicine. But this explosion in knowledge and skill carries downsides. The probability of error or simply receiving mediocre care increases.
How does any prospective patient find optimal care and avoid the risks of poor outcome or harm? Patrick Malone provides all of us a road map to secure for ourselves and our loved ones the best available primary care providers, specialists, surgeons, hospitals, and standards of practice within a health care system that will grow only more complicated, both for good and ill.
The book is organized around what he calls the necessary nine: (1) get your medical records, read them, and organize them; (2) learn how to talk to your doctor efficiently and effectively by making a list, leaving a list, and taking a list; (3) find the best primary care doctor you can, and he gives you the ways to do this; (4) learn the safe, sensible- and skeptical- approach to using medications; (5) understand why all medical tests are flawed and to seek a second opinion at every crucial crossroad in diagnosis and possible treatment; (6) how to chose a surgeon and the checklist for safe surgery; (7) having an advocate with you at every significant health care encounter, particularly in the hospital; (8) how to steer clear of the major hazards of hospitals and how to find hospitals that maximize safety and quality; and (9) how to educate yourself and audit your care if you develop a chronic disease.
The appendices of the book are little gold mines: Appendix A: 28 things that should never happen in a health care facility. Appendix B: high risk situations in biopsy diagnosis of cancer. Appendix C: 15 steps you can take to reduce your risk of hospital infection.
The richness of the book is in its simplicity and power. The nine steps outlined are easy and available to any thoughtful person, and their power to correct the current problems in your health care and to protect you from disasters is immeasurable. And, if you doubt him, Pat Malone brings it home by case examples that you simply cannot ignore.
Full Disclosure: This reviewer is an acquaintance of the author and had the opportunity to read this wonderful book in draft form. Even before its publication the techniques outlined have helped this reviewer manage his and his family's health care and assisted many of his own patients' forays into other hospitals and specialty clinics. In several instances Pat Malone's system has certainly prevented them and their loved ones from significant problems. Own this book. Keep it handy. JAT, M.D.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Prescriptions, Goes Down Easy, July 4, 2009
This review is from: The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care-and Avoiding the Worst (Paperback)
Pat Malone started out exposing medical blunders for the Miami Herald, then became a patients' lawyer making doctors and hospitals pay for their mistakes. Now he has written a terrific guide to help people avoid some of those appalling mistakes and their miserable consequences. This is not an exercise in "first, kill all the doctors." Rather, it is a recognition that health care providers are mortal -- sometimes distracted or tired, sometimes not well-informed about a particular patient's problem. Malone strikes a neat balance in this well-written volume. From his own cases, he offers enough heart-breaking stories of medical whiffs to motivate even the most sluggardly patient. But he mostly provides a series of crisp, sensible steps that patients should take to protect themselves by making sure they have the right doctor or hospital, that the doctor has heard what the problem really is, that diagnoses and drug regimens make sense, and that health care providers are following sound protocols.
If you have ever gotten sick, or think you might in the future, this book is worth a close look.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A moving and invaluable book, June 30, 2009
This review is from: The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care-and Avoiding the Worst (Paperback)
With an engaging style and poignant stories, Patrick Malone explains simple steps one can take to obtain excellent medical care, and avoid the many pitfalls of our medical system. In addition to being a fine read, Malone's book is filled with invaluable practical recommendations, within reach of practically all readers. People can obtain their own medical records and test results, and those records often point to flaws in care, or at least point to issues that need to be probed. Everyone can make a list of their questions, and take them to their doctor's office on the next appointment. Everyone can work to insure that their own primary care physician is at least kept in the loop in the ordering of specialty care -- a step that can help avoid unnecessary, sometimes troubled tangents.
Malone brings to his book decades of experience as an attorney representing people who have suffered serious injury as the result of medical negligence and, previously, as a newspaper reporter dedicated to exposing achievements and failures of American medicine. His background shows in the readability, depth, and intelligence of The Life You Save: Nine Steps to Finding the Best Medical Care -- and Avoiding the Worst.
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