Because the Next Patient is Waiting: My life at the heart of medicine - Couverture souple

Pardes M.D., Herbert

Couverture souple

ISBN 13 : 9798218397401

Editeur : Use my own imprint, 2024

Synopsis

In Because The Next Patient Is Waiting, Dr. Herbert Pardes tells the story of his remarkable career, stressing the compassion and humanitarian concern that will always, for him, be “at the heart of medicine.” In an Afterword, he leaves us with concrete ideas about how to improve healthcare in America, with a stress on more compassionately treating serious mental illness and devoting special attention to preventive care, especially for new mothers and their children.

Trained as a psychiatrist, Dr. Pardes has headed three academic departments of psychiatry and was dean of medicine at Columbia University. He also served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under presidents Carter and Reagan, and for 11 years led NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, New York City’s largest hospital, as CEO.

In telling the story of his career he also tells the story of what has happened over the last 50 years in medicine, with the unique perspective of the ultimate insider. In the portion of the book dealing with psychiatry, Dr. Pardes explains how the field moved from Freud and psychodynamic therapy to an era of biological psychiatry deeply informed by neuroscience.

The perverse attempt by the administration of President Ronald Reagan to slash research budgets, clinical training, and eliminate federal support for community mental health occurred on Dr. Pardes’ watch at the NIMH. He explains how Reagan’s attempt to decimate the NIMH was successfully resisted from within. Tragically, he notes, his team was not able to secure restoration of federal support for community mental health, which he suggests is one of the roots of the crisis we have faced ever since in caring for people with serious mental illnesses.

The plight of these individuals is informed by another historic phenomenon in which Dr. Pardes was both witness and participant, the response of medical and political institutions to the emptying of the state asylums—“deinstitutionalization”—as it gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s. He tells the story from the perspective of a deeply committed participant and caregiver.

Substantial chapters are devoted to Dr. Pardes’ years at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He explains the immense challenge of bringing together two distinguished hospital systems and 20,000 employees to work toward common goals. He stresses, in particular, the importance of placing empathy and compassion at the center of the picture—getting every employee to think about how best and most humanely to serve each patient and the patient's family.

Dr. Pardes reminds readers of how hospital employees are always exposed to high risk and danger when on the job, and how, fundamentally, those who choose this line of work do so, nearly always, because they care about other people. Healthcare jobs carry immense responsibility, and perfection is the standard against which one is judged. Yet, he notes, “we live in a time when trust in hospitals and healthcare personnel, including the most accomplished doctors and nurses, is appallingly low. In this sense, my book is offered as a corrective—a reminder of what is right about medicine, and about how its excellence helps define what is best about our society.”

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Use my own imprint
• Date d'édition: 2024
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 13: 9798218397401
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 268
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible