In this post, I present a Book Review on HOW COVID CRASHED THE SYSTEM: A GUIDE TO FIXING AMERICAN HEALTHCARE.I hope you will take time to read this post and then buy the book, as this book is a guide that every member of the healthcare team needs to have as we move forward in the post pandemic world.
On November 7-9th, I attended the 22 Population Health Colloquium in Philadelphia. The meeting allows me to learn about the trends and innovations in our complex and the frustrating healthcare system. The Colloquium is a conference that I look forward to attending each year.
This year I also looked forward to seeing Dr. David Nash, who has led this conference for years. He is a visionary and someone whom I have looked up to for several years as a professional and a friend. This year was especially exciting as his new book was released: HOW COVID CRASHED THE SYSTEM: A GUIDE TO FIXING AMERICAN HEALTHCARE.
I got the book a few weeks before the conference and looked forward to having Dr. Nash sign it and thanking him for his work. The book is a must-read for all in healthcare. Once I got onsite, I learned there would be an author’s dinner on day 2 of the conference. I was open that night and decided to attend. I was glad I did, as, at the dinner, Dr. Nash introduced his co-author, Charles Wohforth, who came to the dinner. So, I was able to get both authors to sign the book!
The first half of the book detailed the history of COVID and how the United States reacted to it. It was hard to read, as it described much of what we all went through due to the challenges of a dysfunctional, complex, and fragmented system and country.
The book discussed the frustrations many of us felt as we learned about COVID, a virus that seemed to come out of nowhere and took the world by storm in record time. The book explained the shortcomings of our system, which caused millions of deaths and changed the lives of so many due to the chaos surrounding COVID. The book reviewed the issues that were ignored over the years and caused the system to fail when we needed it the most.
The book’s second half gave me hope as the authors provide practical suggestions that, if implemented today, would improve how the system works in many ways. Most were common sense tools we have in place, but we need to use them to their full potential. I was hopeful as I read about organizations with the leadership, support, and guts to stand up against the status quo and do what needed to be done to protect their employees and the patients they cared for.
As I read the book, I wished I had been in school or worked for an organization with the leadership to tackle our challenges and work with a team to implement the changes needed. It gave me hope for the many who did not and paid the price of unnecessary death, increased spread of the disease, and lost revenue due to poor planning and leadership.
As I went through COVID, I kept saying that we as a country/world will learn from COVID and come out better for it. Something good has to come out of this pandemic…..
I still have that hope because Dr. Nash and his co-author Charles Wohlforth wrote a guide to help fix American Healthcare.
If you are in healthcare, regardless of your role, buy this book, read it, have your team read it, and then meet to figure out how you can change your workplace.
The book is available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/How-Covid-Crashed-System-American/dp/1538164256
If you have read the book, let me know what you think and how you are working to make the changes needed.
Have a good week!
