Patient Power: The Smart Patient's Guide to Health Care (Heritage)

Smart Patients Don't Just Know About Health and illness -- they've got a handle on the health-care system and know how to make it work for them. In Patient Power!, two health professionals give you the low-down on who is involved, what they do and what they shouldn't do, and what happens.

Patricia and Arthur Parsons break down the health-care system into three areas: the people, the process, and the results. They introduce you to a whole cast of characters: doctors, nurses, technical people, allied health professionals, and some of the people who deliver alternative approaches to health-care. They explain what each of these characters does and the language they use. They talk about common diagnostic tests, how drugs are prescribed, high tech medical equipment, and what happens in the operating room after you go to sleep. In 'The Results, ' they give you an insider's view on issues such as medical ethics, overuse of the system, social problems that have been made into medical problems, and how to have a 'smart' death.

Entertaining, informative, and easy to read, Patient Power!will give you power over what happens to you in the health-care system.

Patient Power! is an entertaining, informative, and easy-to-read guide to the health-care system. Two health professionals explain the people, the processes, and the results of the system, giving you the power to make the system work to your benefit.