Mark E. Meaney

Paradoxically, the success of medicine in the application of science to medicine has led to the widespread violation of the most fundamental right of patients/advocates, the right to informed consent.

Stated in technical terms, component management (a specialist for every organ) leads to episodic intervention in hospital care, wherein if something happens to an organ, the patient sees a doctor (specialist) for that organ system; if something happens to another organ, the patient sees another specialist or subspecialist for that organ system, and so on.

Episodic intervention leads to a fragmentation of care, or to uncoordinated care, lacking continuity for the patient/family. A fragmentation of care invariably causes a breakdown in communication or a failure to communicate. Miscommunication or a failure to communicate leads to unnecessary conflict among physicians (specialists) and between the healthcare “team” and patient/family. It is also the primary cause of medical error.

From the vantage point of patient rights, a failure to communicate results in the violation of the right to informed consent. With multiple diagnoses from multiple specialists, patients/families/advocates are unable to make an informed choice about appropriate treatment options.

Dr. Meaney's book, Three Secrets Hospital's Don't Want You to Know: How to Empower Patients, is the first guidebook for patient/families on how to navigate the chaotic environment of health care delivery in a hospital setting and from the hospital bedside. It provides patients and their advocates with concrete strategies on how to clear up problems of communication among providers and between the healthcare “team” and patient/advocate, mediate and resolve conflict among providers and between the healthcare “team” and patient/advocate, and deal with medical error without necessarily resorting to lawyers.

In short, it is a guidebook written from the perspective of an “embedded layperson” and from the point of view of the patient on how to solve the problems associated with component management and episodic intervention in getting the care patients deserve when they need it.

Dr Mark E. Meaney is a health care ethicist whose work has focused on both the clinical and organizational sides of health care, particularly on Advance Care Planning, vulnerable populations, organizational ethics and corporate compliance, morally managing medical error, medical information privacy and research ethics.

Before founding the National Institute for Patient Rights, Dr. Meaney taught clinical ethics, bioethics and nursing ethics at a number of universities including Penn State University, Thomas Jefferson University and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Dr. Meaney has served as Vice President of Programs and Publications at the Midwest Bioethics Center (aka the Center for Practical Bioethics), Kansas City, MO. He has also served as the Director, Center for Ethics in Health Care and System Director of Ethics at St. Joseph’s Health System, a internationally renowned cardiac care health system in Atlanta, GA.