It is estimated that up to thirteen percent of hospital admissions result from the adverse effects of diagnosis or treatment, and that anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 hospital deaths annually are the result of errors.  The obligation to "do no harm" has been central to medical conduct since ancient times, yet iatrogenic illness and medical error have now come to be recognized as significant risk factors in health care delivery.  This book integrates history, philosophy, medical ethics and empirical data to examine the concept and phenomenon of medical harm.  Issues covered include medical error, appropriateness of care, acceptable risk and practitioner accountability, and recommendations for limiting iatrogenic harm.

Medical Harm: Historical, Conceptual and Ethical Dimensions of Iatrogenic Illness

Medical Books

Virginia A. Sharpe

Alan I. Faden

Administration & Medicine Economics

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

All manner of medical practitioners have had their scruples dissected ad infinitum. In spite of the attention paid to medical ethics and bioethics, little has been paid to the ethical roles and responsibilities of those who are ultimately in charge of hospital governance: hospital trustees. Deriving from a Hastings Center research project involving meetings with a national task force of experts and extensive interviews with 98 nonprofit hospital trustees and CEOs over a two-year period, The Ethics of Hospital Trustees shows that the decisions made by these often overlooked members of the health community do raise important ethical issues, and that ethical dimensions of trustee service should be more explicitly recognized and discussed. Practical as well as theoretical, The Ethics of Hospital Trustees uncovers four basic principles: 1. Fidelity to mission; 2. Service to patients; 3. Service to the community; and 4. Institutional stewardship. In delineating the extremely important functions of hospital trustees, from patient safety to financial responsibility, the contributors outline not only how hospital trustees do perform―they give a fresh understanding to how they should perform as well.

The Ethics of Hospital Trustees (Hastings Center Studies in Ethics)

Bruce Jennings

Alan R. Fleischman

Bradford H. Gray

Georgetown University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Virginia A. Sharpe. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Virginia A. Sharpe