Main description:

After heart disease and cancer, the third leading cause of death in the United States is iatrogenic injury (avoidable injury or infection caused by a healer). Research suggests that avoidable errors claim several hundred thousand lives every year. The principal economic counterforce to such errors, malpractice litigation, has never been a particularly effective deterrent for a host of reasons, with fewer than 3% of negligently injured patients (or their families)
receiving any compensation from a doctor or hospital's insurer.

Closing Death's Door brings the psychology of decision making together with the law to explore ways to improve patient safety and reduce iatrogenic injury, when neither the healthcare industry itself nor the legal system has made a substantial dent in the problem. Beginning with an unflinching introduction to the problem of patient safety, the authors go on to define iatrogenic injury and its scope, shedding light on the culture and structure of a healthcare industry that has failed to
effectively address the problem-and indeed that has influenced legislation to weaken existing legal protections and impede the adoption of potentially promising reforms. Examining the weak points in existing systems with an eye to using law to more effectively bring about improvement, the authors conclude by
offering a set of ideas intended to start a conversation that will lead to new legal policies that lower the risk of harm to patients. Closing Death's Door is brought to vivid life by the stories of individuals and groups that have played leading roles in the nation's struggle with iatrogenic injury, and is essential reading for medical and legal professionals, as well as lawmakers and laypeople with an interest in healthcare policy.

Contents:

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Nightmare in Dallas-The Ebola Case: A Medical Error Paradigm

Chapter 3. IOM and Public Disclosure of the Error Problem - To Err is Human

Chapter 4. Injury Incidence: The Scope of the Problem

Chapter 5. The Medical Malpractice Litigation System

Chapter 6. Meditations on Medical Torts

Chapter 7. Defensive Medicine: A Response to the Legal Response?

Chapter 8. Error Reporting: A Flawed Panacea

Chapter 9. Legal Innovations to Promote Patient Safety-An Introduction

Chapter 10. Incentives-Good, Bad, and Perverse

Chapter 11. Systems, Errors, and Responsibility-It's the System's Fault!

Chapter 12. Regulation and Engaged Surveillance

Chapter 13. Information Technology

Epilogue