Critically Ill

Two decades ago Dr. Fred Southwick witnessed the near demise of his wife while she was being cared for in a prominent academic medical center. For 15 years he blamed the individual physicians who cared for Mary. However five years ago the doctor realized that encouraging individual physicians to try harder was not the solution.

As he started searching for answers, Dr. Southwick learned that the outdated model of medical care in our country results in fragmented care, great inefficiency, and 44,000­–95,000 annual deaths due to preventable medical errors. Despite calls to action by the Institute of Medicine and many patient safety organizations, these statistics have persisted for over a decade.

In Critically Ill, Mary’s dramatic healthcare nightmare is used as a learning tool to reveal startling, dangerous flaws in our current system of medical care and present a detailed five point action plan to cure healthcare delivery and bring about change.