Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System On Sale For Three Days

 

The Kindle version of my book will be on sale at Amazon.com for only $0.99 on Wednesday, August 17 through Friday, August 19, 2016.  Great opportunity to get the book at a huge discount. All reviews would be welcome. For more information go to http://motivationalpress.com/Patient-Confidential/

 



Recent Review of Patient Confidential

I was very happy to receive this favorable review of my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, from Matt Cavallo, the prestigious author of 7 Steps to Living Well with a Chronic Illness and The Dog Story: A Journey into a New Life with Multiple Sclerosis. 

"I found the information in “Patient Confidential” to be a succinct, easy to read, invaluable resource of how to navigate the healthcare system. I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking education on the healthcare system."

Richard's Interview On Cancer SOS Radio Program





I recently appeared on Joni Aldrich's iHeart radio show, Cancer SOS.  Joni is very experienced in dealing with medical issues, and her show is very helpful to patients, as I hope my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, is. I think Joni and I, and co-host Chris Jerry, had a very lively discussion, which we hope is beneficial to patients and their caregivers. Much of the credit goes to Joni and Chris, who are deeply committed to helping patients and are skilled interviewers.  The link to the show is below.  One must "join" iHeart to listen, but it is easy and free.

 

http://www.iheart.com/show/Joni-Aldrich-SOS-Supporter-of/?episode_id=27259555

Seven Minute Podcast Sheds Light On Issues in

Patient Confidential, Including Getting Second Opinions

 

I was recently interviewed for a podcast on Jennings Wire regarding various tips I set out in Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System.  Here is the link to the podcast.  I hope you find it helpful.



Patient Knowledge Recognized by Hospitals

A recent Wall Street Journal article, reported that, "Patients are getting help from experts with no medical degrees but plenty of know-how: fellow patients who have faced the same health challenges."  The inset title of the article is "The Informed Patient." The core advice in my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, is that the patient must inform himself. The article reports on the formalization of an informal process of informing patients which has gone on for years, namely patients mentoring others who have the same medical condition. Before several of my surgeries, I asked friends who I knew had undergone the same surgery to tell me about the experience and give me practical tips. I have done the same for many others.

 

But, finding a friend with the same condition is happenstance. Now healthcare providers are formalizing that process. Dr. Paul King, Director of the Center for Joint Replacement at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland, is quoted as saying, "We have all these nurses and surgeons who haven't actually had a knee or hip replacement and don't know firsthand what it is like." So, Anne Arundel began a program and trains mentors. Mentors, of course, are not giving medical advice or developing physical therapy plans beyond what the therapist did. Their job is to tell patients what it's "really like" from the patient perspective, and to help them follow the instructions of the professional healthcare providers. With such a program, the patient simply signs up to have a mentor and the hospital matches her with one.

 

In a post to this blog on October 27, 2014, titled "Man Bites Dog," I wrote how I advised my cardiologist what it was like to be a knee replacement patient, and how much he said that helped him. He knew what he knew and I knew what I knew.

I hope healthcare institutions all over the country rapidly establish and support patient mentor programs.

Have Patient Confidential In Your Purse or Pocket

Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, is available not only in print, but also as an e-book which you can read on your e-readers and smart phones and easily take with you to medical appointments.  It is a great format to use Patient Confidential as a handbook during your medical encounters.

Amazon.com

Barnes & Noble

Richard On the Radio

At 1:00 p.m. CDT on Monday, April 13, I will appear on a radio show called CANCER SOS, which is hosted by Joni Aldrich and simulcast on www.W4WN.com and www.W4CS.com. A podcast will be posted after the live show on iHeart Talk Radio and UK Health Radio.

Recent Article Reinforces the Need To Be an Informed Patient

A recent Special Report in Men's Journal, titled "When To Say No To Your Doctor," gives excellent advice to patients. It describes what patients need to know before agreeing to many different tests, surgeries and prescription drug treatments. It explores, among other things, what patients need to know about blood pressure screenings, use of statins (a type of cholesterol management drug) and getting a PSA test (a blood test which screens for prostate cancer). It also contains a section on "Surgeries You May Be Better Off Without."

 

The point is that having some tests or surgeries or taking certain drugs is not a one-sided "no-brainer." If you broke a leg and the bones were sticking out through your skin, you need surgery. There are many such cases, but there are also cases where experts differ on whether a certain surgical treatment is wise. As an illustration, the article discusses whether men should have the PSA blood test. "A suspicious PSA reading . . . might be caused by normal age-related enlargement of the gland [prostate] or an infection . . . ." The article cites research that found that "about three-quarters of the men who got alarming PSA scores and were subjected to the discomfort and infection risk of a prostate biopsy turned out to be false-positives - no cancer found." Dr. Gilbert Welch is quoted: "Roughly half of the elderly men in America have evidence of cancer in their prostate, yet only 3 percent will die from it." The PSA is just one example from the article. There are many more.

 

In my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, I say, "you are not a bystander or an object of medical care. You must be an active participant, thinking, analyzing, gathering date, and asking questions."  In the Afterword to Patient Confidential, I say, "If you learned nothing else, I hope you learned how critical it is that you be proactive in your healthcare. If you don't understand something or it doesn't sound right, ask, ask, and ask some more." 

Shocking New Study on Surgical Errors

In Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, I identify two types of surgical mistakes. I call them "botched procedures," where the surgeon just doesn't do the operation well or leaves instruments in your body, and "wrong procedures," where for example, the surgeon operates on the wrong knee. I say, among other precautions "you should recite the procedure to the doctor when you are seen right before the procedure. 'Hi, Dr. Smith, you're replacing my left knee, correct?' Before the anesthesiologist asks if you are ready to be put to sleep, remind him of any drug to which you are allergic."

Johns Hopkins Hospital released a study recently which supports this advice. The study estimated there are over four thousand malpractice claims filed each year for what it calls "never events," that is things that just should never happen, like sponges or instruments left in the patient or operating on the wrong part of the body. These never events led to permanent injury in 32.9% of patients. These are big numbers and you can do a lot as a proactive patient to avoid being in those statistics.

Should You Get A Second Opinion

     “So you want a second opinion?” the doctor said. “Then listen up and I'll tell you again." As I point out in my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, (for more information about Patient Confidential, please click here), that was not only a joke decades go, but too often a reality. Patients did not question the doctor. I believe the current reality is totally different, or should be. I write in Patient Confidential, "I think, and I believe most doctors think, that [second opinions] are a good idea in the right circumstances. The right circumstances include when a malady may be relatively serious and that there may be alternative treatments or perhaps even alternative diagnoses."

     The overarching theme I "preach" in Patient Confidential is that the patient is not a bystander. The patient must be an active participant, a partner with the healthcare providers, in order to maximize the diagnosis and treatment of the patient's medical problems and to minimize the risks of bad outcomes. Patients need to ask questions, do research and educate themselves. But, the ultimate medical judgment must be made by a medical professional. The way to insure that the diagnosis of a serious medical problem is right and that the treatment is the best available, is to get a second opinion. I have gotten many second opinions, and not once did the first doctor do anything but commend and support my decision. If your doctor discourages you from getting a second opinion, except if your situation is an emergency where there may be no time to get a second opinion, you need a new doctor, not just a new opinion.

 

Survey Supports the Principles in Patient Confidential

     The February, 2015 issue of Consumer Reports has an excellent article titled "How Not to Get Sick(er) In the Hospital," based on a Consumer Reports survey and other respected health care studies. I was happy to see that the article supports and reinforces several of the core principles and tips I have in my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System

     The article shows numerous cases where proactive, involved patients got better results. As I point out in my book, the patient is not a passive object of treatment, but must be an active partner in his or her health care. The survey found that "about 40 percent of patients  . . . did not feel staff always took a  personal interest in them." The article goes on to say, "Reminding people that you are more than a diagnosis can change that." The article suggests talking with medical providers about aspects of your life other than your illness, and taking an interest in anything they tell you about themselves, to create a personal and less sterile relationship. These ideas translate to real, tangible differences in care. The article notes that people who rarely received respect from providers were two and a half times as likely to be the victims of medical errors.

     The article also stresses another principle I write about in my book. Have a family member or friend accompany you to healthcare encounters, to be a second set of eyes and ears and to be an advocate when necessary. Survey respondents who did this were 16 percent more likely to feel respected and 12 percent more likely to recommend their hospital. When I have had surgery, my wife always plans her schedule to be at the hospital during and after the surgery, and the next day when the doctor is expected to come with more information and instructions. We both want her to hear what the doctor says.

     Another key tip in Patient Confidential and in the article, is to write things down. It is hard enough to remember complicated medical explanations when you are well, let alone when you are sick.  Listen carefully, always ask questions if you don't understand what the provider has said, and write it down.  If possible, have your loved one present and writing things down too.

     Learn how to get involved in your healthcare.  It pays huge dividends.

Increased Use of Advance Directives

In a recent article, The New York Times cited a study by The Commonwealth Fund focused on health care for Americans over age 65. While the report gave low grades to many aspects of seniors' health care in America, it noted that seniors in America "do better than almost anyone else in the survey on advance care planning. Americans over 65 are the most likely to say they have discussed having a health care proxy (78 percent) and to have actually named one (67 percent), and rank second in having a written plan describing their end-of-life wishes (55 percent)."

This is very encouraging. As I discuss in my book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, the law of most states provides several mechanisms by which you can express your wishes for end of life care before you are too ill to make such decisions.  These mechanisms are referred to as "advance directives."

It is beyond the scope of a blog to discuss advance directives in detail, but a full explanation and analysis can be found in Patient Confidential and other books on healthcare. Your doctor is a good sources for forms for advance directives.

Patient Confidential Ebook Released

Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System is now available in ebook form, as well as in print. The ebook format is ideal for those who prefer to read on a device and is very handy to take along to the doctor visit or test or to have on the bedside table during that unfortunate hospital stay.

Patient Confidential Is Released

I am excited to announce the release of my new book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System. The book draws on my lifetime of healthcare encounters, including over thirty five surgeries and invasive procedures, weeks and weeks in hospitals and all the countless tests, office visits and physical therapy that I have attended. I really hope the book helps people of all ages as they obtain their healthcare, be it minor or major. Click here for more details and to see four endorsements of which I am really proud.

  

Smart Patients Can Make Anesthesia Safer 

The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article on steps doctors and patients can take to make anesthesia safer.  Most people understand that anesthesia has risks.  They are familiar with the Michael Jackson case or with Joan Rivers's recent death from oxygen deprivation during a surgical procedure.

As I advise over and over in my upcoming book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, knowledge of medical procedures is critical.  And, always, always ask questions. The Journal article discusses safety measures doctors can take, but of more interest to most readers is the information on what measures patients can take to maximize safety.  The article contains an excellent sidebar, entitled "Getting Ready to Go Under" with a list of six steps patients should take before receiving anesthesia.  They include such things as asking who will monitor your anesthesia, the surgeon, a nurse or an anesthesiologist, and giving the anesthesia provider a full list of all prescription and non-prescription drugs and a list of all supplements and herbal remedies you take.

Man Bites Dog

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently had a heart procedure performed.  As my doctor was going over the procedure he was about to perform, I mentioned that I heard he was going to have knee replacement surgery.  So, then the man bit the dog.  As the “Professional Patient,” I gave the doctor some of the advice I wrote in my upcoming book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System, which is practical advice given from the patient’s perspective.  Of course, there is too much in the book for me to cover in a conversation and, as a physician, my doc would have more knowledge than the average patient.  I concentrated on getting home from the hospital, which I discuss in the section entitled “Going Home From the Hospital” in Patient Confidential.  For example, I told him to prepare for coming home before he goes to the hospital, not when he gets home.  I told him to remove any throw rugs he could slip or trip on, and to get his favorite chair exactly where he will want it when he gets home.  To my delight, when he saw me in the hospital the next day, he said, “I followed your advice.  I went home last night and took care of rugs and chairs.”  I was pleased that I had helped.

 

Practicing What I Preach

Earlier this week, I had a heart procedure performed by an excellent cardiac electrophysiologist at one of the leading hospitals in the Chicago area.  So, I further enhanced my credentials as the “Professional Patient!”  I am happy to report that I followed all of my own advice, which is set out in my upcoming book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice To Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System.

My doctor performs various types of electrophysiology procedures, two of which are somewhat similar.  I wanted to be “double sure” my doc was about to perform the one we had agreed on.  When I scheduled in advance, I said to the scheduler, “Now, I’m coming for Procedure A, not Procedure B, right?”  I asked the same question of the nurse who was prepping me for the procedure.  The doc, who was one step ahead of me, arrived and said, “we are doing Procedure A.”  I said, “Right, and not Procedure B.”  He confirmed and gave me the consent form which I saw stated he would be doing Procedure A, so I signed it.  When I got into the procedure room, I listened carefully as the doc called the “time out,” which is explained in the section entitled “Patient Safety Procedures” in Patient Confidential. I heard him say for the recorded time out that he was going to do Procedure A on Mr. Richard Lang.”  All was well. 

 

Another Endorsement and Another Step Closer to Launch

Motivational Press will be sending Patient Confidential to the printer in a few days.  Look for the launch in late November or early December.

I was very pleased to receive the following endorsement from Julia M. Byerly, PT CLT-LANA - Physical Therapist:

 

Patient Confidential is an amazing book that provides pertinent information to assist each person in making health care decisions, whether it is for a routine physical or an unfortunate trip to the emergency room.  Rich educates readers on the intricate details of our ever-changing world of medicine, with his educated background as a healthcare attorney, extensive research and above all, his own personal experiences and healthcare endeavors.  This quick and easy book will empower each and every reader to truly become an advocate for him or herself when tackling the complex world of healthcare

Patient Confidential Endorsements

Steven J. Mash, M.D., Orthopaedic Surgeon and founding shareholder of M & M Orthpaedics, Ltd. Wrote: “Patient Confidential is the book every doctor wishes their patient would read before starting treatment.  Patient Confidential will give the reader the ability to be a smart consumer and partner in his or her own health care decisions.”

 

Lois Hoitenga Roelofs, Ph.D., RN, Professor Emerita of Nursing, Trinity Christian College and Author of Caring Lessons: A Nursing Professor’s Journey of Faith and Self wrote: “From my perspective as a nurse, teacher, and oftentimes patient myself, I recommend Patient Confidential as a must-have tool that promises to greatly diminish fear-of-the-unknown that naturally occurs when pushed into new and strange environments. Lang’s humor, too, will smooth your journey.”

Countdown to Launch - Patient Confidential

I am anxiously anticipating the launch this Fall of my new book, Patient Confidential, Tips and Advice to Keep You Safe As You Navigate the Healthcare System. Unfortunately, I am a frequent-flier patient. It started in earnest when I was twelve years old and has continued for over fifty-seven years. I have had over thirty-five surgeries or invasive procedures and spent, in the aggregate, over sixty days in at least six hospitals and countless partial days in outpatient surgery settings, MRI machines, CT Scanners, physical therapy clinics, doctors’ offices and laboratories. I wrote Patient Confidential because I think I can help almost all people, whether they are patients or care givers, by relating all that I learned from my too-vast experience.

 

Rich Lang