Gretchen recommends "Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won't Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care"

Marty Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital and professor of health policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, has written an eye-opening expose into the state of today’s hospitals and the broken health care system.  In clear details, he writes about regrettable experiences he witnessed during medical school and beyond, and he backs these horrifying stories with shocking statistics like a study in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that as many as 25 percent of all hospitalized patients will experience a preventable medical error of some kind.  Makary points out that modern medicine relies on information, yet this same data, including infection rates, number of surgeries performed, and death rates are unavailable to patients and their families making critical decisions.  There is often a business push to do more procedures, prescribe certain drugs, or admit more patients for financial gain.  Despite these grim facts, Makary is hopeful that the tide is turning towards greater transparency, an improved culture within the medical field, and more accountability.  This book is recommended for all adults; it just might save your life or that of someone you love.