The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 1.7 million people developed healthcare acquired infections in 2010. Since most people spend only a small part of their lives in healthcare facilities, this guidebook also tells readers how to avoid picking up serious infections in day care centres, schools, business offices, and other common locations. Unlike other books, which focus on how to change the hospital systems, The Patient Survival Guide focuses on empowering you with the knowledge and techniques to ensure a safer healthcare experience. The Patient Survival Guide: Inspires you to be a your own advocate Describes in vivid detail how your preparation and informed vigilance can significantly reduce the chances of harm and death to your loved one in a hospital Provides specific, practical, and outside-the-box strategies for anticipating and preventing errors, with chapters devoted to each of the most common mistakes and mishaps Provides checklists for patients to use upon admission to healthcare facilities

Author Biography

Dr. Maryanne McGuckin has over 35 years of experience as a faculty and staff member of University of Pennsylvania. Currently she is a Senior Scholar in Health Policy Department at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. McGuckin's speciality is infection control and hospital epidemiology. She created the Partners in Your Care program, a hand hygiene program which combines monitoring and patient empowerment and is used in several hundred hospitals in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. McGuckin served on the 2002 Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) task force that developed Hand Hygiene Guidelines for Healthcare Workers, was a member of the World Health Organization task force that developed a global patient empowerment model. Toni L. Goldfarb is a medical journalist whose writings have appeared in numerous professional and consumer publications Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, FCCM is a critical care specialist at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.