When We Do Harm by Danielle Ofri

When We Do Harm by Danielle Ofri

Medical mistakes are more pervasive than we think. How can we improve outcomes? An acclaimed MD's rich stories and research explore patient safety.

Patients enter the medical system with faith that they will receive the best care possible, so when things go wrong, it's a profound and painful breach. Medical science has made enormous strides in decreasing mortality and suffering, but there's no doubt that treatment can also cause harm, a significant portion of which is preventable. In When We Do Harm, practicing physician and acclaimed author Danielle Ofri places the issues of medical error and patient safety front and center in our national healthcare conversation.

Drawing on current research, professional experience, and extensive interviews with nurses, physicians, administrators, researchers, patients, and families, Dr. Ofri explores the diagnostic, systemic, and cognitive causes of medical error. She advocates for strategic use of concrete safety interventions such as checklists and improvements to the electronic medical record, but focuses on the full-scale cultural and cognitive shifts required to make a meaningful dent in medical error. Woven throughout the book are the powerfully human stories that Dr. Ofri is renowned for. The errors she dissects range from the hardly noticeable missteps to the harrowing medical cataclysms.

While our healthcare system is--and always will be--imperfect, Dr. Ofri argues that it is possible to minimize preventable harms, and that this should be the galvanizing issue of current medical discourse.

Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, is an associate professor of medicine in New York University School of Medicine and has spent more than two decades caring for patients at New York's Bellevue Hospital. Academic mainstays in medical schools, universities, and residency programs, Ofri's books and papers have become academic staples. She is the editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review and contributes to the New York Times on a monthly basis.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780807037881
ISBN 10	0807037885
Title	When We Do Harm
Author	Danielle Ofri
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Beacon Press
Year published	2020-03-23
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.