Taking the Hell Out of Healthcare. This item is unavailable.Taking the Hell Out of Healthcare

Mary was admitted to a tertiary hospital for open heart surgery. The surgery did not go well and had to be repeated the following day. Then her physician placed her in a drug induced coma for 10 days, transferred to a specialty care hospital for a month where she contracted what could have been a terminal infection and was placed on fifteen different medications that had her in a near vegetative state. These drugs had been prescribed by five different, independent physicians who had not checked the necessary drug interaction information. All of this proved, once again, that the system is broken. We are treating organs, not people. As the patient s advocate, we had Mary weaned from the majority of these dangerous and mostly unnecessary drugs, lobbied for her for physical therapy, and helped nurture her back to health. Exactly one year later, she is at her daughter s home and doing just fine.

F. NICHOLAS JACOBS is President of a hospital and founder of a molecular research institute, Nick has been a senior leader in healthcare for over 20 years. He is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, a board member on the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and has been a speaker for Health and Human Services, the World Health Organization, the American Hospital Association, and the American College of Heatlhcare Executives. Prior to entering the health care arena, he was a professional trumpet player and music educator, served as president of a convention and visitors bureau and executive director of an arts organization.