This is an excellent check-list type article about preparing for, and following up after, surgery. There are a myriad of things we as patients can forget, so it helps to have some reminders.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Planning to Have Surgery?

If you or someone you love is planning to have surgery, there are some things you can do to help ensure a good recovery.

Before you decide to have surgery, you should be certain you fully understand the pros and cons, risks and benefits of the procedure. Do some research on the procedure and talk directly with your physician. Be sure you know the implications of waiting versus going ahead with the surgery now, and understand the medical and other alternatives that are available to you.

Get a second opinion. Talk with a physician who is not a surgeon, perhaps an internist. Don’t proceed until you have no question this is the right approach for you to take now.

If you decide to have the surgery, you may want to talk with two or more surgeons to compare their approach to your problem and see how comfortable you are with them. Ask what facility they would use, and why. Since facilities that do a higher volume of the surgery you’re going to have frequently have better outcomes, ask about that.

Does the surgeon have joint ownership in the facility? Good to consider. Will you be able to get an early-in-the-day surgery if you prefer that?

Once you’ve settled on a surgeon, ask for the pre-operative and post-operative instructions right away, so you’ll have a better idea of what to expect as your surgery day approaches. The surgeon will want you to have certain blood tests, perhaps an ECG and a chest x-ray, and other tests related to your condition, to clear you for the procedure.

Sometimes anesthesiologists have particular tests they want you to have, too. If you can get a list of all the tests the team members want at least a week before surgery, you can save time and avoid last-minute surprises.

The post-op instructions are great to get ahead of time, too. They’ll give you a better idea of what to expect when you come home from the hospital and will allow you to be sure you have the help, supplies, equipment, food, and post-operative medications you may need on hand.

Preparing for the surgery, there’s lots to do. First, prime yourself for the physical challenge of it all by eating right, getting enough sleep, getting plenty of exercise, and managing your stress well. Do things you enjoy. Think of it as preparing for a marathon.

Talk with your surgeon about any medications you should be stopping as you get closer to the day of surgery. If you’re on blood thinners, steroids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), aspirin products or many other drugs it’s important to know whether you should wean yourself from them and when.

Quiz the surgeon about what exactly you should expect on the day of surgery. The more you know, the less anxious you’ll probably be.

Ask if you can meet with the anesthesiologist beforehand. Often that’s difficult because a team of anesthesiologists takes care of the people scheduled for a given day of surgery, and the doctors don’t get assigned to particular patients until the night before or even the morning of the procedure. But it doesn’t hurt to try.

Even if it’s right before surgery, it’s important to tell the anesthesiologist about any concerns you might have, previous experiences with anesthesia — good or bad — and any particular conditions you’d like him or her to know about. Some people, for example, would like their I.V. in one arm versus the other, or happen to have a loose tooth, (which could be accidentally damaged when they put the breathing tube in surgery), or sense they’ll be very anxious and need a pre-operative sedative.

And sometimes the anesthesiologist will want to talk with you. He or she may offer you options about different kinds of anesthesia, such as general (when you’re completely asleep) to a spinal (when you will be able to see and hear things but would not feel anything). Ideally, this conversation would happen before the morning of surgery, but often it does not.

After the surgery, there are four things everyone who has surgery should do:

• Restore yourself with lots of sleep, naps, old movies, music — whatever you like. Follow the recommended diet and drink plenty of fluids.

• Manage your pain. Don’t wait until it is severe. Especially in the first few days, taking pain medication regularly gives you a stable blood level of the drug. That is the most effective way to reduce your pain and discomfort.

• If you’re able, start moving as soon as you can, as directed by your surgeon. Have someone with you at first and as you need it. Understand that early mobility will speed your recovery. If necessary, take pain medication about 30 minutes before you plan to get up.

• Don’t hesitate to call your surgeon and/or primary care healthcare provider if you have any questions at all. And don’t miss any follow-up appointments; they’re an important part of ensuring you’re on the road back to good health!

Learn more from the National Library of Medicine.

Read the original article here:
http://www.bodboss.com/2013/01/planning-to-have-surgery.html?spref=tw

By Lynn Greenblatt

Anyone can become a family caregiver at any time.  All that’s required is a diagnosis and the willingness of another to look after the patient.  The illness or condition, its severity or stage, the patient’s health, constitution and emotional well-being will all affect how well the patient will be able to manage learning about the health issue, dealing with the treatment and adjusting to a new routine.  This is when a family caregiver can partner with the patient, becoming his / her “extension” and advocate.

Whether sudden illness throws you into a new caregiving role or it evolves gradually over time, there are certain steps that can help a new family caregiver to better manage care:

Create a care team.  This is a group of people that will guide and help the family caregiver to perform all necessary tasks.  The team should include: doctors, nurses, therapists and all medical professionals involved in the patient’s treatment.  They will say what needs to be done or avoided.  This includes dietary restrictions, exercise or activity level, medications, etc.

Create a support team.  This group will include family members and friends, and can help with meals, errands, driving to doctor’s appointments, visiting the patient and giving the family caregiver a break.

Learn about the condition, medications, side effects, treatments.  Ask questions at appointments or call the nurse / therapist if you have any concerns.

Use online services or technology to coordinate care and tasks with your support and care teams.  CaringBridge, LotsaHelpingHands, eCareDiary, etc. are some tools that can help update family and friends, and organize help.

Schedule and take small breaks every day – even if you don’t feel that you need them.  It’s important to take your mind off whatever you do all day to let your brain and emotions recharge.  Caregiving is usually a long and bumpy road, so you want to take steps to last through the journey.

Take care of yourself: exercise, walk 30-60 minutes daily, eat nutritious meals.

Stay in touch with friends and family.  Don’t wait for someone to call you.  People often don’t want to take up your time (they know you’re busy) or they don’t know how to help (they often want the caregiver to tell them what he/she needs).  Call them!

Make a list of all tasks, big and small, that you can show people when they offer to help.  Let them choose a task right then and there!

Make a list of all medications – including other the counter (OTC) meds – and all doctors and their contact information.  Update as needed.  Keep a copy in the patient’s room, take a copy to each doctor’s appointment.

Find out what services and resources are available near you from your doctor, disease organizations, support groups or online.

Reach out early to friends, family and community to remain strong and motivated.  This will help you avoid depression, anxiety, stress and burnout.

Get organized.  You may need to fill out forms for the patient’s health insurance, doctors, therapists, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.  Set up folders, label them and keep a copy of everything.  You may be able to deduct medical expenses in your tax return, so keep receipts.

Set up Durable and Medical Power of Attorneys, Advance Directives, Will for the patient.  Let family know your caree’s wishes.

Breathe!  Not everything happens at once.  But do a little every day to set yourself up to be an efficient family caregiver.  This will reduce stress and enable you to better cope.  Just remember that a family caregiver is there to CARE, not necessarily to CURE!

Make sure you spend time with your loved one just visiting, chatting, enjoying each other’s company.  Your caree didn’t choose the illness or frailty and may be having a hard time accepting it.  Show compassion, empathy, patience and tolerance as best you can.  One day, we may need someone to care for us!

Be grateful that you are able to care for someone else.  The caree could have been you!

Original post: http://www.caregivingcafe.com/blog/2012/11/30-posts-in-30-days-advice-to-newly-diagnosed-caregivers/

ExpressWell gives special thanks to Lynn for including us in her blog, in New Caregiver Links and Caregiving in the 21st Century. We’re honored and most grateful!

Find CareGiving Cafe on Twitter
and on Facebook.

Having just seen my primary care physician yesterday for an overdue check-up, I realized after the appointment was over that I had not wrestled with the idea of asking him if he had washed his hands before examining me.

I completely forgot. Maybe on purpose.

It’s difficult to ask your doctor or other medical provider if he/she has washed up. Some physicians see it as a direct challenge and take offense, while others are receptive to respectful prompting.

According to FierceHealthcare’s article, Patient’s Reluctance to Tell Providers to Wash Hands,  I’m not the only patient who is reticent to bring up the hand hygiene subject with my medical providers. FierceHealthcare reports that over half of patients won’t ask their doctors to wash their hands. And we all know that health care workers’ hands are the most common vehicle for transmission of healthcare associated infections. The NIH says it plain and simple: hand hygiene is the leading measure to reduce healthcare associated infections.

To make things even more complicated, research in the Archives of Internal Medicine reports that 27 percent of clinicians say it’s not a patient’s place to instruct them to wash their hands.

Whose place is it?

According to The Joint Commission, 1.4 million people worldwide are suffering from hospital-acquired infections. In the U.S. one in every 136 patients becomes severely ill as a result of acquiring an infection in a hospital. It is estimated that each year more than 99,000 die because of hospital-acquired infections.

That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Healthcare associated infections don’t just occur in hospitals. More medical treatment has shifted to outpatient settings and fewer patients are being admitted to hospitals. That means more healthcare associated infections occur outside of the hospital setting.

Both patients and medical providers understand the importance of good hand hygiene to prevent the spread of healthcare associated infections. No one wants to contract or spread MRSA, C.diff, or other infections. However, Johns Hopkins Center for Innovation in Quality Patient Care reports that healthcare providers adhere to national guidelines for hand hygiene less than 50 percent of the time.

That puts patients in a difficult position.

If healthcare providers in the U.S. are compliant with good hand hygiene protocols less than half the time, and over 50 percent of patients won’t speak up to medical providers about washing their hands, and a good percentage of those medical providers are not open to patients’ requests for hand washing, we have a problem. What can patients do?

Doug Hall of PULSE of Florida suggested a large name-tag or clip-on badge with the reminder, “Wash Hands Before Patient Contact.” That’s a valuable idea for hospitalized patients, but I can’t imagine walking into my PCP’s office with that badge clipped onto my blouse.

Once, I asked a pediatrician who was subbing for my daughter’s pediatrician to wash her hands before touching my child. I’d watched her interact with two sick kids in the exam room across from us. Those kids were coughing, wiping their noses, rubbing their hands on their pants, and climbing all over the exam room table and chair. I pitied the poor parent and child who were next in line for that room. Without washing her hands, that pediatrician walked directly into our exam room and headed for my daughter. I asked her to wash her hands first. It was uncomfortable for both of us but worth it. Somehow it was much easier advocating for my daughter than for myself.

I think we need to change our attitudes about how we interact with our medical providers. If you look at some of the statistics I quoted about how many people get infected by health care associated infections (a polite way of saying ‘diseases spread because people are not using good hand hygiene’) the reality is pretty shocking and scary. Maybe we need to think about the number of people we all know who have been affected by one of these infections, how someone we know or love developed C.diff and had a terrible time getting rid of it. Or died.

If we work with our medical providers, and regard them as partners instead of demi-gods, maybe it will be easier to ask them to wash their hands, use hand sanitizer and don disposable gloves. Maybe we can develop enough self-confidence as patients to speak up and politely say, “Would you please wash your hands?

And maybe it’s time for medical providers to partner with patients and resist regarding us as being on the other side of the fence. Patient safety is a team effort.

For more information on The Take-Charge Patient: How You Can Get the Best Medical Care, go to www.thetakechargepatient.com

For more information on Critical Conditions: The Essential Hospital Guide To Get Your Loved One Out Alive, go to www.criticalconditions.com

Read the original article here:

http://martineehrenclou.com/2012/11/scrub-up-prevent-99000-deaths-from-healthcare-associated-infections/#.ULUE6oX-C9Y

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• 4/20/11 Patient Doctor Visits Inspire ExpressWell’s iPhone App

Think of a time when you’ve felt very sick, maybe a case of pneumonia, a bad bout of the flu, or a more serious illness.

You probably didn’t feel much like “engaging” with people. That’s the term health advocates use to describe what patients need to do to be effective in managing their health care.

It’s very hard to act like the CEO of your own body when you’re unbelievably tired, or in pain, or depressed.  It’s virtually impossible to feel powerful when you have chronic bed head and it’s a challenge just to climb the stairs.

Illness can be paralyzing on many levels and can turn even the most pro-active person into a passive recipient of their healthcare.

Therein lies the problem:  At a time when you most need to be asking tough questions, seeking a second or third opinion, gathering your medical records and reassessing your current treatment, you are typically least able to act.

How do you protect yourself when your energy reserve is at zero due to illness?

One solution is to create a personal healthcare checklist – and share it with the most important people in your life.

That means making sure that your spouse, family and friends know how you’d like to manage an illness long before you get sick.

Talk with them about it. And then, should you end up in such a situation, the people who care about you most can step in, and ensure that you get the help and support you want and need.

This statement isn’t about last wishes or how to manage terminal illness. Rather, it’s about clearly stating in writing your core healthcare and lifestyle principles. It describes your wishes for ensuring the best possible care.

Here’s what such a directive could look like: (Yours would likely be different).

Should I become too ill or too tired to effectively manage my own healthcare, I would like help in making sure I receive and maintain the highest quality care, as defined below:

1. I always want a second, or, if necessary, a third opinion on any treatment, surgery or procedure that carries moderate risk or has notable pros and cons.
2. I want to know the odds of benefiting from any treatment or procedure that is recommended.
3. I want access to all my medical records.
4. Before taking any medication, I want to fully understand the side-effects and long-term implications associated with each.
5. I want to know and fully understand my diagnosis and my prognosis.
6. I want the doctor’s un-edited opinion about my situation.
7. I would like the opportunity to talk with other patients with the same diagnosis.
8. I want exposure to whatever is necessary to be as educated as possible about the illness.
9. I’d like someone to accompany me to appointments. Having another person listen and if necessary, advocate on my behalf, may be invaluable. At a minimum, I might need help remembering details, asking questions and taking notes.
10. I want my physicians to talk directly to me, and not solely to the person who accompanies me.
11. I do not want to hide due to depression.
12. I want to maintain healthy nutrition and exercise habits, to the best of my abilities.
13. I want to laugh daily and indulge in small pleasures with family and friends.

Having a statement like this will help you communicate your needs at a time when you’re likely to be spending most of your energy just coping with your illness.

At the very least, it will help the people who love you understand what you’ll need and want most from the healthcare system — and from them.

What would your “Personal Health Checklist” look like?

Read the article also at:

http://www.bodboss.com/2012/11/nows-time-to-write-down-your-personal.html

http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2012/11/personal-health-checklist.html

http://www.thirdage.com/medical-care/why-you-need-a-personal-healthcare-checklist

Barbara Bronson Gray, RN, MN is an award-winning writer and a nationally recognized health expert. A regular contributor to HealthDay and other health news and commentary sites, she has worked in hospitals, led a major healthcare magazine, created a website for WebMD, and served as a leader of global communications for Amgen. Read her blog bodboss.com, and follow her on Twitter: @bbgrayrn.

 Alexandra Yperifanos founded ExpressWell, Inc., with partner Andrew Hill, to improve patient-doctor communication and reduce medical errors. The ExpressWell iPhone apps are based on the conviction that everyone should proactively maintain and succinctly communicate their health records to medical professionals. More at www.express-well.com & on Facebook & Twitter: @AlexYperifanos.

If you don’t know Robyn, she is one amazing, brave, beautiful “Kick-Ass Cancer Advocate & Champion” whose story will inspire you: http://cancerhawk.com/about-me/

By Robyn Gross Stoller

iPhone App to Organize Your Medical History

Throughout our battle with cancer, we must have seen at least 2 dozen doctors specializing in different areas of care, and that doesn’t include all the residents or interns we were forced to speak with or the doctors we met during our unexpected emergency room visits. I felt like a broken record repeating the same information on Alan’s diagnosis & everything that went along with it (meds, supplements, timeline of events, surgeries, etc.) time after time after time. Candidly it was exhausting and as time went on and the amount information I had to share increased, my ability to accurately communicate these details was dwindling away.

ExpressWell is an iPhone app that organizes your critical medical info,

At-a-glance summary of your medical history
making it much easier to relay health history when seeing a new doctor or at an ER visit.  ExpressWell tracks the sort of information a doctor needs to know to treat you (like what medications & supplements you’re taking, any conditions or allergies, & medical events or procedures you’ve had) plus it stores contact info for all your doctors.

You can store up to 10 different people’s information which is a great feature for families.  Plus, ExpressWell is 100% private and password protected.  Patient information is not retained or uploaded to any web site; it never leaves your mobile device. Patients control who sees their personal health information and when.  All you have to do is keep it current with up-to-date information.

To learn more about this app, visit Express-well.com or download it directly from the iTunes App Store.

Read original post at:
http://cancerhawk.com/2012/11/02/iphone-app-to-organize-your-medical-history/

Find Robyn at:
@cancerHAWK on Twitter
https://www.facebook.com/CancerHawk?ref=ts&fref=ts
http://cancerhawk.com/

Have you ever felt tongue-tied explaining your health situation when the health provider walks in the examining room? Hard to put your life history into what entrepreneurs call an “elevator speech”?

If you’re like a lot of people, describing your current symptoms isn’t that hard to do. But when you want to offer some background information, or be sure the doctor or nurse remembers you have diabetes, or you had back surgery a year ago — or whatever — you can get tripped up. If there’s a long
list of issues, surgeries, diagnoses and medications it’s hard to know what’s most important to mention.

That’s why it makes sense to get your health history organized before it’s needed, whether for a doctor’s appointment, a visit with a specialist, or in case of an emergency.

You have a few options. You can write out a health history summary if you like, and bring it with you. But you may not want to carry a piece of paper in your wallet or purse, and, too, if it’s too long, it may not even get read. It’s also easy to lose or forget to bring along.

A better option for you may be to use a free wallet card or an iPhone app to help you store your key information and have it ready when you need it.

“It makes sense to manage your own information,” says Alexandra Yperifanos, founder of ExpressWell, Inc. She and Andrew Hill started the company – and created an iPhone app and wallet card system –  to help people organize their information and have it quickly accessible.

Years ago, Alexandra and her father, Nico Yperifanos, created a document to manage his health information. They summarized his critical medical history into one, easy-to-read page, a kind of “health resumé.” They used it frequently, asking doctors to review it at the start of any appointment. His physicians said it was just what they needed: clear, easy-to-read information that helped them  remember the key points about his situation or learn them quickly.

The tool was also designed to be helpful should you have difficulty communicating your health history, due to language challenges (when traveling, for example), or from  diseases and conditions that can affect your speech or ability to communicate, Yperifanos says.

“It’s a brief description of who you are,” she says. Information entered and stored includes, for example, blood type, medications you’re taking, allergies, conditions, surgeries and procedures you’ve had, the name and contact information for your physicians and emergency contacts, your height and weight, and the name of a family member or friend who knows you well enough to talk about your health status with a healthcare professional.

You can get the app on iTunes, ($4.99, or $5.99 for a version that allows you to enter profiles for up to 10 people). Just download it on your phone, fill in the information, and then, when needed, simply hand your phone to a health professional. A free wallet card is also available on the website as a back-up tool, or for those without iPhones.

It’s so easy to forget important information. Having a quick summary of your health background and the issues you face can help prevent errors and increase your chances of getting an effective and timely diagnosis and treatment.

Find out more at express-well.com.

Original story: BodBoss by Barbara Bronson Gray, RN, MN

By Pauline W. Chen, M.D.
The New York Times Health Section Doctor and Patient October 4, 2012

The patient, a wiry businessman in his 50s, needed a copy of his medical records to bring to a specialist for a second opinion. He assumed that getting the copies would be straightforward; the records were, after all, his.

But after multiple trips to his doctor’s office and the hospital and several days of missed work, he learned otherwise. At the hospital, after spending the good part of a morning hunting down the right person to process his request, he learned that signing the requisite permission forms was not enough. He would have to pay for the copies that would take several days to put together. Those copies turned out to be incomplete, so he had to wait another few days, and pay more, for copies of the missing pages.

At his doctor’s office, the staff and then his own physician had responded to his request by asking him why he even needed his records. “I told them the truth, that I wanted a second opinion, but it was more than a little awkward,” he recalled. “I’m not sure if my doctor will treat me differently from now on.”

“It’s like they and the hospital were doing everything they could to make it harder for me,” he said.

Two weeks later, dossier in hand, he swore he would never let it out of his sight. But, he added, “I can’t say that this whole experience has given me a lot of confidence in my doctor or my hospital.”

This patient’s experience, like those of so many others who have tried to obtain their medical records, came to mind this week when I read about the long-awaited results of a study in which patients were given complete access to their doctors’ notes. The findings, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, do more than shed light on what patients want. They make our current ideas about transparency in the patient-doctor relationship a quaint artifact of the past.

Since 1996, when Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or Hipaa, patients have had the right to read and even amend their own records.

In fact, few patients have ever consulted their own records. Most do not fully grasp the extent of their legal rights; and the few who have attempted to exercise them have often found themselves mired in a parallel universe filled with administrative regulations, small-print permission forms, added costs and repeated delays.

Many physicians also remained hesitant to share their notes, part of the patient’s records, because of concerns that such openness might have harmful effects on both their patients’ well-being and their own practices. Some worried that mention of minor abnormalities in laboratory values — for example, a slightly elevated prostate specific antigen or white blood cell count — could cause patients to worry unduly about some dread disease.

Other doctors feared that common medical abbreviations like “SOB” (shortness of breath) or “anorexic” (lack of appetite) could be misinterpreted. Still others imagined that writing notes with patient readers in mind would only complicate the process, adding to the already Sisyphean administrative demands of practice and inviting an onslaught of patient e-mails and calls for extended consultations.

Those fears, it now turns out, were largely unfounded.

For one year, the study, aptly called OpenNotes, allowed over 13,000 patients from three medical centers — the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., and the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle — to have complete access to one part of their medical records, the notes that doctors wrote about them. Within days of seeing their doctors, patients received an e-mail inviting them to read the doctor’s signed note on a secure patient Web site. Two weeks before their return visit, patients received a second e-mail inviting them again to review their doctor’s note from the previous encounter.

After a year, almost all the patients were enthusiastic about the OpenNotes initiative.

Surprisingly, so were the majority of doctors.

Approximately three-quarters of all the doctors said that such transparency had none of the dreaded impacts on their practice. Many felt there was more trust, better communication, more shared decision-making and increased patient satisfaction. While a portion of the doctors were hesitant at the beginning of the study, not a single one opted to stop sharing notes with patients after the study ended.

“Their fears simply never materialized,” said Jan Walker, one of the two lead authors and a registered nurse and health services researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess.

There were several surprising results for patients, as well. While many said they felt more in control of their own care, up to almost 80 percent of the patients said that reading their doctors’ notes helped them to take their medications more regularly and better follow their doctors’ treatment recommendations. Furthermore, having access to their doctors’ notes became so important that nearly all of the patients said any future decisions regarding doctors or hospitals would be predicated on being able to access their records easily.

All three hospitals in the study are working to allow those patients who participated to continue to have access to their doctors’ notes. Beth Israel Deaconess, which already allows all patients to view their test results on a secure patient Web site, plans to expand the program even further over the coming year, becoming one of the first hospitals in the country to allow all patients open access to notes from not only their doctors but also their nurses and all other health care providers.

And in what may signal even wider adoption of this new vision of transparency, representatives from several national health care groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association, will be meeting in Washington next week to discuss the study results and ways of implementing similar programs in other institutions.

“On the one hand, we call this the ‘new medicine,’” said Dr. Tom Delbanco, the other lead author and a primary care physician who is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “But we’re also just giving patients what is already their right.”

He added: “It’s as we say: Nothing about me without me.”

Link to original article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/letting-patients-read-the-doctors-notes/?smid=pl-share

Link to Doctor and Patient Blog: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/category/doctors/doctors-and-patients/

We love the work and practical advice of this author and patient advocate!

Frustrated or confused about how to get good medical care? In her newest book, award-winning author Martine Ehrenclou, M.A., empowers patients to become proactive, assertive, well-informed participants in their own health care…

The Take-Charge Patient outlines strategies to enable patients to take charge of what they can. You will learn how to:

• Become your own advocate
• Choose the best doctor you
• Prepare for your medical appointment
• Create a patient’s toolkit
• How to collaborate and communicate effectively with doctors
• Prevent medical errors and medication mistakes
• Manage health insurance
• Obtain discounted medication and medical care

More information at: http://www.thetakechargepatient.com/

Take a look at Martine’s blog http://martineehrenclou.com/featured-posts/ which is full of useful tips and information about health, medical issues, patient empowerment and more.

We are so excited for Elizabeth Bailey’s book, The Patient’s Checklist! It’s a must-have book that can save your life with its simple and insightful approach.

While helping family and friends navigate their hospitalizations, [Bailey] realized how production checklists could be adapted to help patients better manage the complexities of hospital care.

— from Elizabeth Bailey’s bio

Pick up a copy today, and tell your friends about it; you never know when you’ll need it.

http://thepatientschecklist.com