The Empowered Patient is a 50,000-word book that enables patients and their loved ones to successfully navigate complex medical delivery systems. The book’s goal is to encourage, embolden and enlighten medical consumers and their advocates to proactively participate in their own medical treatment, which the author hopes will lead the health care community into an era of increased safety and accountability.
Ten chapters focus on numerous patients’ rights and patient safety issues. Each chapter identifies a different health care issue and provides easily comprehensible and very specific strategies to empower all medical care recipients. A majority of the guidelines in the book were regularly used by the author during her daughter’s many hospitalizations over a 10-year period.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE – Introduction
CHAPTER TWO – Your Healthcare Team
CHAPTER THREE – Infection Control and Prevention: How to Fight Infection in the Hospital and at Home
CHAPTER FOUR – Medical Errors: A Threat to Public Safety – How to Protect Yourself from Harm
CHAPTER FIVE – Second Opinions
CHAPTER SIX – When Reality Does Not Meet Expectations – Communicating Your Concerns and Complaints
CHAPTER SEVEN – Medical Records: The Playbook of Your Life
CHAPTER EIGHT – Informed Consent: How to Avoid Signing Away Your Rights
CHAPTER NINE – Your Rights and Responsibilities
CHAPTER TEN – A Review of the Information and Communication Process: Prerequisites for Becoming a Proactive Patient
CONCLUSION
