When We Do Harm
When We Do Harm
When We Do Harm
Ratings1
Average rating5
15
When We Do Harm
When We Do Harm
Ratings1
Average rating5
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
I'm fortunate that in my thirtysomething years on this planet I haven't required anything more serious than some antibiotics for strep, and the only time I've gone under the knife was for elective cosmetic surgery. My husband, likewise, is healthy as a horse (knock on all available wood). So I approached this book very much as an outsider with a general interest in, well, generally all things, and the premise sounded interesting. I was extremely surprised at how much I walked away with from this book, even having no ongoing medical conditions myself.
The book is structured in such a way that the author's points are mixed in with actual cases and examples emphasizing what she finds important. There's also two larger cases that span a good chunk of the book, one involving a patient named Jay and the other a burn victim named Glenn, that she uses to drive home points all throughout the book. I really liked this approach, and also appreciated the fact that everything was easy to understand and approachable.
The premise can be a little scary for some people, that mistakes can happen, but people are people and this is very hard to overcome. The author goes to great lengths explaining all the safeguards and thought processes in place to prevent mistakes from happening, and then also discusses all the ways these can be bypassed in the name of expedited care and overworked staff. The specific mistakes involved in the two larger cases (Jay's and Glenn's) are outlined at the very end of the book, and the author discusses how these mistakes and others can be avoided by the medical industry. Chapter 16 especially was good to read, as the author discusses what a patient can do to protect themselves, and also provides various resources to reach out to if negligent treatment is suspected.
All in all I enjoyed this book a ton and walked away with some valuable information that I'll hopefully carry with me as my husband and I get older.
