Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance.

Book/Report

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance.

April 11, 2007

Gawande A. New York, NY: Metropolitan; 2007.

View more articles from the same authors.

This book includes essays on the social and professional conventions that can affect a physician's ability to provide safe and effective care. Gawande, a surgeon and frequent contributor to The New Yorker, previously wrote the acclaimed book Complications and received a 2006 MacArthur Fellowship.

Information

Book review

Book excerpt

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right.

January 13, 2010

Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science.

March 27, 2005

The checklist.

December 12, 2007

Why doctors hate their computers.

November 14, 2018

Personal best.

October 5, 2011

The bell curve.

March 6, 2005

When doctors make mistakes.

March 6, 2005

Overkill: An avalanche of unnecessary medical care is harming patients physically and financially. What can we do about it?

May 20, 2015

The malpractice mess.

December 7, 2005

Failure and rescue.

July 11, 2012

Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It.

February 6, 2019

Listening for What Matters: Avoiding Contextual Errors in Health Care.

March 9, 2016

Health Care Opinion Leaders' Views on the Quality and Safety of Health Care in the United States.

August 15, 2007

Lost Mothers: Maternal Care and Preventable Deaths.

November 8, 2017

Diffusion of Innovations. 5th ed.

March 27, 2005

Doing Harm.

April 11, 2018

Black Box Thinking: Why Most People Never Learn From Their Mistakes—But Some Do.

January 13, 2016

Safer Healthcare: Strategies for the Real World.

February 24, 2016

Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World.

June 23, 2021

Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences.

March 27, 2005

The Design of Everyday Things.

March 27, 2005

Framework for a High Performance Health System for the United States.

August 30, 2006

Maternal Health of Women and Girls of African Descent in the Americas.

July 26, 2023

Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again.

March 20, 2019

Patient Safety: A Case-Based Comprehensive Guide.

October 16, 2013

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

September 26, 2012

Patient Safety: An Engineering Approach.

November 23, 2011

The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine's Computer Age.

April 1, 2015

Snowball in a Blizzard: A Physician's Notes on Uncertainty in Medicine.

March 30, 2016

Every Patient Tells A Story: Medical Mysteries and the Art of Diagnosis.

August 26, 2009

The Best Practice: How the New Quality Movement Is Transforming Medicine.

November 5, 2008

Safer Hospital Care: Strategies for Continuous Innovation, Second Edition.

May 16, 2019

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. Revised & Updated Edition.

March 27, 2005

The Girl Who Died Twice: Every Patient's Nightmare: the Libby Zion Case and the Hidden Hazards of Hospitals.

March 27, 2005

Patient Safety and the "Just Culture": A Primer for Health Care Executives.

March 27, 2005

Committed to Safety: Ten Case Studies on Reducing Harm to Patients.

May 10, 2006

The Cognitive Autopsy: A Root Cause Analysis of Medical Decision Making.

January 27, 2021

Error and Uncertainty in Diagnostic Radiology.

March 20, 2019

Monday Mornings.

April 11, 2012

Are Workarounds Ethical? Managing Moral Problems in Health Care Systems.

February 3, 2016

Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery.

June 17, 2015

Josie's Story.

September 23, 2009

Patient Safety: Research into Practice.

September 13, 2006

Misadventures in Health Care: Inside Stories.

August 24, 2005

Economic Analysis of Medical Malpractice Liability and Its Reform.

July 24, 2013

Clinical Uncertainty in Primary Care: The Challenge of Collaborative Engagement.

March 5, 2014

Dead by Mistake.

August 19, 2009

Confronting Racism in Health Care: Moving from Proclamations to New Practices.

December 1, 2021

Fragmented: A Doctor's Quest to Piece Together American Health Care.

September 27, 2023

Still Not Safe: Patient Safety and the Middle-Managing of American Medicine.

December 18, 2019

Surgical Patient Safety: A Case-Based Approach.

October 18, 2017

Global Patient Safety: Law, Policy and Practice.

August 14, 2019

Insurers' Medical Loss Ratios and Quality Improvement Spending in 2011.

April 10, 2013

Around the Patient Bed: Human Factors and Safety in Health Care.

October 23, 2013

When Doctors Don't Listen.

January 23, 2013

Errors in Organizations.

August 1, 2012

Understanding Patient Safety, Third Edition.

May 23, 2012

The Invisible Gorilla: and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us.

August 11, 2010

Closing Death’s Door: Legal Innovations to End the Epidemic of Healthcare Harm.

July 7, 2021

Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals: How One Doctor's Checklist Can Help Us Change Health Care from the Inside Out.

March 10, 2010

Keeping the Commitment: A Progress Report on Four Early Leaders in Patient Safety Improvement.

March 30, 2011

Implementing Patient Safety: Addressing Culture, Conditions and Values to Help People Work Safely.

October 23, 2019

Building a Culture of Patient Safety Through Simulation: An Interprofessional Learning Model.

June 10, 2015

Transparency and public reporting are essential for a safe health care system.

April 7, 2010

The Basics of FMEA. 2nd ed.

March 27, 2005

Fatal Solutions: How a Healthcare System Used Tragedy to Transform Itself and Redefine Just Culture.

October 5, 2022

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An Update on the Quality of American Health Care Through the Patient's Lens.

April 12, 2006

End Sepsis.

September 7, 2016

Zero Harm: How to Achieve Patient and Workforce Safety in Healthcare.

July 31, 2019

Quality and Safety in Anesthesia and Perioperative Care.

July 17, 2019

Mirror, Mirror 2021: Reflecting Poorly

August 1, 2021

How Discrimination in Health Care Affects Older Americans, and What Health Systems and Providers Can Do.

May 4, 2022

Why doctors still offer treatments that may not help.

September 4, 2019

Using the web or an app instead of seeing a doctor? Caution is advised.

July 20, 2016

Your new medical team: algorithms and physicians.

December 16, 2015

Resilient Health Care Series.

September 16, 2015

Diagnosis: Reducing Errors and Improving Quality.

November 2, 2022

HANYS' Report on Report Cards.

November 20, 2019

Medicare says it won't cover hospital errors.

August 22, 2007

Some hospitals call 911 to save their patients.

April 11, 2007

Missed signals.

May 16, 2007

Handoffs and fumbles.

March 27, 2005

Health Care Leader Action Guide to Reduce Avoidable Readmissions.

February 10, 2010

Implementation of simulation training during the COVID-19 pandemic: a New York hospital experience.

February 24, 2021

A night in the hospital, from both ends of the stethoscope.

January 20, 2021

Why false positives merit concern, too.

November 4, 2020

At Walgreens, complaints of medication errors go missing.

March 11, 2020

How chaos at chain pharmacies is putting patients at risk.

February 19, 2020

My human doctor.

October 17, 2018

I can't turn my brain off.

May 27, 2020

Bad hospital design is making us sicker.

March 8, 2017

A boy's life is lost to sepsis. Thousands are saved in his wake.

April 26, 2017

An E.R. kicks the habit of opioids for pain.

December 14, 2016

Ireland investigates cervical cancer screening scandal.

May 16, 2018

Doctors were alarmed: would I have my children have surgery here?

June 12, 2019

In a culture of disrespect, patients lose out.

July 31, 2013

Death of a boy prompts new medical efforts nationwide.

November 7, 2012

FDA begins inquiry after death and illness from saline bags meant for training.

January 28, 2015

Over-the-counter medicines' benefits and dangers.

December 9, 2015

Getting the diagnosis wrong.

October 21, 2015

Related Resources

Broken Trust: Making Patient Safety More than Just a Promise.

July 19, 2023

The challenge of risk prevention in home healthcare-an interview study with nurses in municipal care.

July 12, 2023

Patient Safety Innovations

Preventing Falls Through Patient and Family Engagement to Create Customized Prevention Plans

May 31, 2023

Annual Perspective

Improving Diagnostic Safety and Quality

April 26, 2023

Press Play on Safety Conversations.

December 7, 2022

Patients' experience of patient safety information and participation in care during a hospital stay.

November 16, 2022

National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports.

November 7, 2022

HEAR Her Concerns.

April 6, 2022

Perspective

Health Equity and Maternal Health

October 6, 2021

Interview

In Conversation With….Alison Stuebe, MD, MSc and Kristin Tully, PhD

October 6, 2021

FDA Safety Communication: update--robotically-assisted surgical devices in mastectomy.

August 20, 2021

Effectiveness of communication interventions in obstetrics--a systematic review.

April 21, 2021

Safer Together: A National Action Plan to Advance Patient Safety.

September 16, 2020

The risks of the prescribing cascade.

September 16, 2020

Patient Safety Innovations

Statewide Telehealth Program Enhances Access to Care, Improves Outcomes for High-Risk Pregnancies in Rural Area

June 12, 2020

Health care provider factors associated with patient-reported adverse events and harm.

May 20, 2020

Checking In on the Checklist.

February 5, 2020

Consumers' perspectives on their involvement in recognizing and responding to patient deterioration—developing a model for consumer reporting.

July 24, 2019

My human doctor.

October 17, 2018

Patient's Toolkit for Diagnosis.

October 12, 2018

Medical misdiagnosis: more common than you think.

November 15, 2017

Patient Safety in the Home: Assessment of Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities.

September 6, 2017

Guide to Improving Patient Safety in Primary Care Settings by Engaging Patients and Families.

March 22, 2017

Partnership for Patients (PfP) Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) 2.0 Final Report.

October 19, 2016

Safety Is Personal: Partnering With Patients and Families for the Safest Care.

April 2, 2014

Exploring Patient Engagement in Reducing Health-Care-Related Safety Risks.

September 4, 2013

Medical errors leave devastating impact on families, professionals.

May 15, 2013

After the Error: Speaking Out About Patient Safety to Save Lives.

May 1, 2013

Involving Patients in Improving Safety.

January 30, 2013

Harm to Healing - Partnering with Patients Who Have Been Harmed.

August 1, 2012

See More About The Topic

Hospitals

Patients

Surgery

Medical Complications

Surgical Complications