Death of Compassion: The Endangered Doctor-Patient Relationship - Hardcover

Thurston, Jeffrey, M.D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1567961193 ISBN 13: 9781567961195

Publisher: Wrs Pub, 1996

Synopsis

Book by Thurston, Jeffrey, M.D.

About this title

Reviews

The health care debate has about as many sides as a Buckminster Fuller geodesic dome. Thurston weighs in with the private medical practitioner's point of view. He ominously raises the issues of choice, quality of care, and the doctor-patient relationship. He uses anecdotes from his career to illustrate the importance of the personal bond between doctor and patient and to show how the impersonalization of managed care and the emphasis on cost cutting threaten quality. He also argues that third-party payment of medical bills invites increased costs and proposes establishment of medical savings accounts (IRA-like savings plans funded by employers or the government or both) that patients can draw from to pay bills. David Rouse

Obstetrician/gynecologist Thurston is troubled that physicians are being transformed into corporate "healthcare providers" and their patients into "customers." Recounting episodes from his medical career to demonstrate how the quality of medical care rests on the trust established in the doctor-patient relationship and how this trust is being destroyed by governmental and economic pressures on medicine, Thurston exposes the dangers of managed care plans and health insurance companies to patient care and the traditional doctor-patient partnership. His real-life examples of the dire consequences of basing medical decisions solely on economic expediency are chilling. This private practitioner's perspective on current healthcare trends is alarming. The balance between medical care and economics has always been delicate, and many would argue that economics has always prevailed over compassion, but Thurston writes persuasively that things can get worse. For all medical collections.?James Swanton, Albert Einstein Coll. of Medicine, New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wrs Pub
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1567961193
• ISBN 13: 9781567961195
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 189