Customer Reviews

You the Smart Patient: An Insider's Handbook for Getting the Best Treatment

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was a hospital administrator for just under two decades so most of this information is second nature to me. I purchased this book because I liked the general style of "You: The Owner's Manual" and was curious to see how the doctors tackled this subject. I have been impressed with the way they were able to take out much of the unnecessary medical and hospital terminology and get to the point for the rest of us.

The book is subdivided as follows:

1. Getting to Know You (Information that is important to convey to your doctor)
2. Finding Doctor Right (not all doctors are created equal, 50% of all doctors finished medical school in the bottom 50% or their graduating class)
3. Let's Play Operational (what you should know if you are scheduling surgery)
4. Prescription Drugs
5. How to Case a Hospital (choosing a safe hospital)
6. Have a Happily Humdrum Hospital Stay
7. Why You Should Always Get a Second Opinion
8. Just What Gives You the Right (Patient Rights)
9. Considering the Alternatives (Alternative Medicine)
10. Take Control of Your Health Insurance
Appendix 1: Medical Jargon Explained
Appendix 2: Sample Forms (Your Health Journal, Living Will, Power of Attorney for Health Care, Do Not Resuscitate Order)
Appendix 3: Resources

If you know someone that has been diagnosed with cancer, or will be undergoing surgery this is a nice book to buy. The doctors cover a lot of important topics like: making certain a hospital has JCAHO accreditation (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, checking the doctor's board certification, understanding HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, knowing drug interactions and getting second opinions. All of these things are extremely important and will impact your care if not your health.

If you don't work in a healthcare setting, I recommend reading this book before something happens to your health and you end up in the hospital. I read somewhere that almost half of us will have an inpatient stay in the hospital prior to the end of our lives. I don't think we can ever be too prepared for something that can have such an impact on our lives, or the life of someone that we love. As a former member of the hospital community I can tell you that the doctor and hospital that you select can have a tremendous impact on the outcome you experience. Why take a chance, know the facts, and know your rights.

This book was an interesting read, and it certainly has some useful information in it. It's written in an irreverent style, for those who like that sort of thing. Chap. 1 does a good job of explaining how and why you should have a detailed health history on hand, as well as knowing your family history and keeping a list of your medications. Later on in the book, on p. 271, there is related advice, on getting copies of all your test results, radiology reports and specialist reports. All important to keeping your health information up-to-date.
Chap. 2 covers finding a good primary care doctor, though some of the advice is also meant for finding a specialist. Pages 91-95 are especially relevant, where it's explained that it's important for you to let a doctor ask you a lot of questions, so they can figure out what is wrong with you, and how important it is for you to answer those questions succinctly. At times, I couldn't tell if the content of this chapter was meant for finding a primary care or specialist doctor; I would have liked to have seen a chapter just on finding a specialist.
Chap. 3 is all about locating a good surgeon. It has a lot of fine points about finding the surgeon who's best for treating your condition, and has a list of important questions you should ask the surgeon before having an operation.
On p. 74, and again on p. 109, there are suggestions about finding a good doctor by asking for recommendations from nurses and anesthesiologists at nearby hospitals. I'm sure that these individuals do know who the better doctors are. However, I wonder how willing these health care providers would be to provide recommendations to patients who are complete strangers. But, it's a gambit that's worth a try.
There's a chapter about hospital stays, and the main advice is for you or your family members to make certain that the hospital staff wash their hands religiously, and to watch like a hawk to make certain that you're given the right treatments, tests and medications, rather than the wrong ones meant for another patient. It's astounding the amount of diligence you and your family will have to exercise during a hospital stay.
Chapter 7 is well-written and explains why it is so important to get a second opinion about your medical care. There's also a discussion about patient rights. Likewise, Chap. 9 on health insurance is full of useful tips explaining how to deal with your insurer.
After reading through the book, I was hoping to find advice on how to deal with a difficult situation I've experienced, but I wasn't able to find any. The situation is when I've done my homework like the book says, and found a surgeon who's highly regarded, works at a teaching hospital, has great credentials and is highly recommended by my family doctor. He's even published a paper about the condition I have. And then I go to him, and find that he's disinclined to answer the questions about surgery, such as those listed on p. 99-101. What's a patient to do in a situation like this? Here you've followed the advice in the book, and you're still stymied in getting good medical care.
There is only one small part of the book that I disagreed with, and that's the sidebar on p. 204, about being a grateful patient while in the hospital. Like the book says, it is nice if you can buy candy or pizza for the nurses during your hospital stay, to show your appreciation. But then the book goes on to suggest "if you've never been a people person in your life, now is a good time to get good at it."
This is great advice - if you're going on a job interview or to a party. A hospital stay is neither of these. You're there because you're sick and in pain and trying to get your health back. From my visits to hospitals to see friends and relatives, I've witnessed a cousin on morphine spouting out nonsense and unable to recognize family members. I've seen a friend so debilitated by surgery and pain, that she could barely carry on a conversation. Asking someone to be at their 'social best' under such circumstances is simply asking too much.
As much as a person is able to, they should try and not be disrespectful or overly demanding of the hospital staff. And I do think, as the sidebar suggests, that once you are out of the hospital and back to your normal self, that you write thank you notes to the staff, and let them know that you did appreciate the care you were given.
This subject makes me wonder if a patient should expect a doctor to 'get good at being a people person'.
All in all, I think the book is a good read for those who are totally mystified about obtaining decent health care. If you're half-mystified, there's still plenty of good suggestions here. But for anyone who's been involved with doctors and hospitals for some length of time, there's not much new in this book. You've probably already found out a lot of this information just through your experiences navigating the labyrinth that is medical care here in the US.

Medical mistakes are a disaster. And we're not just talking about sensational boo boos like amputating the wrong leg or pumping an allergic patient full of penicillin. It's all the little errors that accumulate in a person's medical life that these two popular health authors are out to correct. It's up to each individual to take charge of the quality and scope of their own health and healthcare. They need to become "The Smart Patient."

Poor communication between patient and doctor, incomplete or inaccurate health histories, small mistakes that get propagated through our health records, and incomplete understanding of the surgical or pharmaceutical options available to each of us, these are error and omissions that can, and occasionally do kill. As a fellow physician, I have seen all too often, how a misspoken or misspelled word has been allowed to misguide doctors and misdirect treatment.

In my opinion, You The Smart Patient is a terrific roadmap for the average, healthy patient wanting to scour their health record clean of misleading errors, to flesh it out with useful personal information and to prevent new inaccuracies from contaminating it in the future.

The writing style, as in all the "YOU" books, mixes health information with a lot of chatty humor and busy cartoons. making for a stimulus-rich book reading experience. For the reader who can take it in as fast as they can deliver it, this can be a bit distracting. But the information is all there. This is a comprehensive treatment of the subject, outlining what you must do to interact safely with our imperfect healthcare system.

We all know it pays to be a savvy consumer and that ignorance is costly. But nowhere is the cost of consumer ignorance higher than in medicine. Empowering the patient is a dominant message in many of the most popular health books. You The Smart Patient is a one of your best roadmaps to that empowerment.
- John Corso, MD author of: Stupid Reasons People Die, An Ingenious Plot for Defusing Deadly Diseases

I bought this book because of how much I enjoyed and learned from their previous book, YOU: The Owner's Manual. As expected it was full of extremely useful information that I wasn't aware of and I already feel empowered to be a smarter patient. Also it was written in the laid back, easy to read way the previous book was making it much more understandable that the regular doctor jargon.

Both my parents tend to not want to hear about their health issues. They have the "head in the sand" mentality which is very frustrating. I bought the book for both of them in hopes that it might turn their thinking around and enable them to be more proactive about their health.

I thank the authors for this book. I recommend it to every one of all ages. We are in an age where everyone is more empowered and wanting to be in control of their own lives and futures, so why not be involved in a movement to take charge of your own health?

The advice in this book has been invaluable. Covers being a smart, informed patient in doctor's office or hospital; how to choose a doctor, hospital, ER, etc.; checklists to cover with doctors; valid patient concerns about hospital care and cleanliness; and where to complain if the need arises. Though I first bought the book as a future reference, I soon had real-life use of it with two unexpected hospitalizations and an unusual medical condition on which several specialists had somewhat different opinions. This guide helped me become informed enough to understand and navigate treatment alternatives primarily by asking the right questions (which the book provides in checklists). I'd typically ask the checklist questions after the doctor's advice during a visit, and it's amazing what would not have been told to me had I not done this. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to be well informed and in control of his/her healthcare.

My mother picked up this book at an airport shortly before she was scheduled to have surgery, and we are very glad she did! This book was an invaluable resource for her to calm som eof her fears, and for the rest of our family, so that we could learn to be better advocates for my mother while she was in hospital. This was not her first surgery, and all of us work in health care and there were still things we learned.

Yes, as some reviewers have stated the style may seem very simplistic, but that make it even easier to digest.

Also, many reviewers have stated that it covers common sense things that everyone should know. That is true, however, those common sense things are often the most overlooked. Patients rarely think to ask those caring for them if they have washed their hand, because they assume they did. This book encourages you to assume nothing, and always double check.

I recommend this to anyone who is either preparing for surgery, as well as their family members.

I picked this book up because I'm going to see a new doctor. I found a whole list of things I should take with me, ask and be prepared for.

Having read it, and knowing my own experiences, this is a book that should be read by everyone who's concerned about their health and the care they're receiving.

Buy it now, tab it, underline it and share it with friends.

We've all got a vested interest in the healthcare system. Some of us just don't know it yet - or worse still, don't appreciate that fact. We are all destined to fall foul of the healthcare system at some stage in our lives, so if you don't want to be a victim of the system, this book is a must read for you.

If you are involved in healthcare, then much of what is contained within these pages sounds pretty much like common sense. Stuff many healthcare professional already do. But, if you have little experience with 'The System' then you're going to need all the help you can get. And as the book goes to great lengths to explains, it's better to be ready before the need arises.

The book is fun to read - although sometimes the content is pretty scary - and is somewhat irreverant. A style that I enjoyed. The content is excellent and very helpful. It's not a book to flick through, it does try and involve you - the future patient - in taking control of your healthcare. While it may not save your life, it may help you get a better health outcome by helping you navigate successfully the healthcare maze.

this book is a must read for anyone who is, has been, or will be dealing with the medical profession. Written by two M.D.'s, of highly credible standing, it is easy to read and has a wealth of information concerning working with doctors, hospitals and the general field of medicine as it relates to You: The Smart Patient. It is entertaining and humerous. Don't miss reading this book.

I have had some serious medical problems in the last six months and could have avoided many heartaches had I read this book and made wise use of the information contained therein. In this age of HMO's, overpaid hospital executives, everyone needs to take full responsibility for his/her own healthcare and this book is a key to doing just that.Well worth every penny!
In addition, it is written in a manner easily understandable to the lay person with little/no knowledge of medicine.