Closing Death's Door: Legal Innovations to End the Epidemic of Healthcare Harm

Iatrogenic injury is the third leading cause of death in the US, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives annually. Closing Death's Door explores ways to improve patient safety and reduce iatrogenic injury by combining psychology and law. The book defines iatrogenic injury, highlights the healthcare industry's failure to address it, and proposes new legal policies to lower the risk of harm to patients.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 336 pages
\n Publication date: 31 March 2021
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
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The third leading cause of death in the United States is iatrogenic injury, which is an avoidable injury or infection caused by a healer. According to research, avoidable errors claim several hundred thousand lives each year. Malpractice litigation, the primary economic counterforce to these errors, has never been a particularly effective deterrent for a variety 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. The healthcare industry itself and the legal system have made little progress in addressing the problem. The authors begin by providing an unflinching introduction to the problem of patient safety, defining iatrogenic injury and its scope. They shed light on the culture and structure of a healthcare industry that has failed to effectively address the problem and has even influenced legislation to weaken existing legal protections and impede the adoption of potentially promising reforms. The authors examine the weak points in existing systems with an eye to using law to more effectively bring about improvement. They 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.

\n Weight: 614g\n
Dimension: 167 x 241 x 35 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780190667986\n \n