Healthcare's Path Forward: How Ongoing Crises Are Creating New Standards for Excellence

From the author of The Epidemic of Empathy in Healthcare and The Good Doctor comes a book that explores how the persistent pandemic has revealed what excellence in healthcare truly means and presents an action plan to achieve it. The goal of healthcare has always been to reduce suffering, but Covid-19 has sharpened and added important nuances to our understanding of what that means. In Healthcare's Path Forward, Thomas Lee explores how the work of healthcare is being transformed by a deeper knowledge of what suffering means for patients, their families, and healthcare providers themselves. He reveals how to: build patient trust, starting with their initial internet search; develop a high-reliability culture that eases patient fears; make equity and inclusiveness a cultural norm; actively listen to patients across all channels of communication; and enhance understanding of important issues through AI and other means. Lee uses data to demonstrate trends and insights into how health systems should respond, offers examples of organizations making major advancements, and provides specific, practical recommendations for healthcare leaders, clinicians, and other caregivers. This book is a thoughtful, impassioned call to action.