By Margaret A. Mahony, M.D.

Take an intimate journey with compassionate and concerned doctor, Margaret A. Mahony, M.D., during her last year in managed health care (often called "mismanaged" or "mangled" care). A timely and honest look at what works and what doesn’t in the world of medicine today. She explores the AMA’s Code of Medical Principles, including: "A physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical service with compassion and respect for human dignity."

Based on hundreds of true stories and viewpoints of patients, doctors, nurses, and others in the health field. Inspiring essays demonstrate the spiritual dimension of the physician--patient relationship and how to heal it. Such a relationship is often excluded by present managed care mandates. Managed health care has not only affected patients. It has had a major impact on physicians and others in health care as well. Their lives, careers, and aspirations in health care have been painfully unsettled. The author often asks health care professionals why they cooperate, in spite of their anger and misery? Several essays provide insight into seemingly inexplicable behavior.

Endorsements:

"A book that every patient and health care provider can benefit from. This book does more than inform, it educates. I would make it mandatory reading in medical schools." – Bernie Siegel, M.D., Author of Love, Medicine & Miracles and Prescription For Living

"Saving The Soul Of Medicine is a call to arms—the kind of arms that reach out to patients to provide comfort and care. It is a call to get the hands of insurance companies and HMO managers out of our pockets and those of our patients. Dr. Mahony describes the daily and nightly intrusion of mismanaged care into the doctor-patient relationship. Through a series of telling case vignettes, she documents the corrosive effects of restricted choice of physicians, pre-authorization bureaucracy, refusal to reimburse to services, disrupted continuity of care, and increasing burdens of wasteful makework on patients, nurses, and doctors. Medicine is a complex and delicate enterprise. It has been hijacked by pirates who have deprofessionalized medicine, damaged care, and reaped windfall profits. Dr. Mahony lets us listen in on the inner voices of her patients and her own soul as a physician. If you care about the future of medical care in this country, read this book." -- David Spiegel, M.D., Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, School of Medicine

"Modern medicine is in crisis. The qualities we used to value in our physicians--empathy, caring, concern, and compassion--are hemorrhaging, and are being replaced by concern for efficiency and the bottom line. Saving The Soul Of Medicine is one of the most intimate looks at these developments that has yet been written. Drawing on her interactions with her patients and colleagues, Dr. Margaret Mahony questions whether medical care can be ‘managed’ as if it were an investment portfolio. Anyone—patient or professional—who cares deeply about the human and spiritual sides of medicine should read this book." -- Larry Dossey, M.D., Reinventing Medicine and Healing Words

    * A timely and honest look at what works and what does not work in the world of medicine.
    * Based on hundreds of true stories and viewpoints of patients, doctors, nurses, and others in the health care field.
    * Inspiring essays demonstrate the spiritual dimension of and ways to heal the physician-patient relationship.
    * An examination of the current malaise in medicine for profit.
    * How managed health care is destroying the souls of dedicated health care professionals.
    * Viable solutions to our expensive and overwhelming health care crisis.
    * The author found it distressing to experience the anguish and frustration of practicing medicine under the guidelines of managed health care. She heard her patient’s legitimate concerns, yet was unable to help. The current system is not working. Americans must get involved and demand change. She provides potential solutions.

Margaret A. Mahony, M.D. is a practicing physician in San Jose, CA. She was born and raised in Illinois. She received her medical education at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She trained in obstetrics and gynecology at Los Angeles County Medical Center. She has been in full-time private practice in San Jose for 11 years. Presently, her private practice is devoted to women’s health issues, with a focus on prevention and wellness in the perimenopausal / menopausal transitions. She is the Director of the Women’s Health Program at the Center for Integrated Medicine at O’Connor Hospital in San Jose. She lives with her husband and their two children.

Hard cover; 6 x 9, ISBN 1-885003-35-8; $21.95 plus $3.50 shipping and handling.