Five Patients is a non-fiction book by Michael Crichton that recounts his experiences of hospital practices during the late 1960s at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and describes the changes he anticipates in healthcare in coming years. It is his first non-fiction book.[1][2]
The book describes each of five patients through their hospital experience and the context of their treatment. Crichton notes in the foreword of the 1994 reprint of this book that medical practices (both the culture, technology, and finances) have changed significantly since the book was written, but that the text was left as is to give a more complete glimpse into the past.
The five patients were Ralph Orlando, a construction worker seriously injured in a scaffold collapse; John O'Connor, a middle-aged dispatcher suffering from fever that has reduced him to a delirious wreck; Peter Luchesi, a young man who severs his hand in an accident; Sylvia Thompson, an airline passenger who suffers chest pains; and Edith Murphy, a mother of three who is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.
Crichton recounts a brief history of medicine until 1969 to help contextualize hospital culture and practice and mentions national healthcare, drug prices, healthcare costs, and healthcare politics. The increasing cost of healthcare is a major theme – then at 15% per year.
He quotes Dr. James Howard Means, who is critical of the American Medical Association: "every attempt has been made by liberally-minded groups to improve medical care and make it more accessible...the AMA has attacked with ever increasing truculence... They forget perhaps that medicine is for the people, not for the doctors. They need some enlightenment on this point."
^Seligson, Marcia (June 8, 1969). "The versatile Crichton". Chicago Tribune. p. k6.
^Redlich, F. C. (2 Aug 1970). "Five Patients". New York Times. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
FivePatients is a non-fiction book by Michael Crichton that recounts his experiences of hospital practices during the late 1960s at Massachusetts General...
his own observations in his field of expertise. In 1970, he published FivePatients, which recounts his experiences of hospital practices in the late 1960s...
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respirator-dependent patients. There he was accused of giving patients drugs at unscheduled times. He was fired after being seen entering a patient's room with syringes...
human females have been diagnosed with NCS. In fivepatients, coding de novo mutations were found in five different genes which fall into similar functional...
that damages organs and makes patients vulnerable to infections. Because of their compromised immune systems, patients with CF should not get closer to...
sequence of May 21–26, 2011. Fivepatients were killed inside the hospital due to electrical failure and surviving patients were evacuated from the health...
sentenced to life for murdering patients". DW. 6 June 2019. "Niels Högel: German ex-nurse convicted of killing 85 patients". BBC News. 6 June 2019. Retrieved...
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studied in over 40,000 patients tested with either the MAP or traditional ANA testing strategy (tANA), demonstrating patients who test MAP positive are...
the 1940s, psychotic patients would express delusions about their brains being controlled by radio waves; now delusional patients commonly complain about...
Nair notices that although there are only fivepatients on the records, there seems to be a sixth patient, Nithya (who happened to be chained in a cell...
reporters that the hospital was filled with patients with staff overworked stating; "We cannot make rounds on patients. We cannot move between beds." According...
suggested by the study of brain-injured patients who had developed prosopagnosia. In this condition, patients are unable to recognize faces consciously...
produced pain relief in a group of patients with cancer pain; but when applied to six anesthesia dolorosa patients, no pain relief was achieved, and the...
Daily levodopa dose was reduced by a mean of 72%, with fivepatients receiving none. Three patients developed severe chorea postoperatively, which improved...
Archived from the original on February 24, 2008. Retrieved August 5, 2009. "Patients with emergency brain disorders are denied specialist care" (Press release)...
frequently occur in critically ill patients. CIP was first described by Charles F. Bolton in a series of fivepatients. Combined CIP and CIM was first described...
(exploring privileged sexual abuse of patients within the healthcare system). Patients First California Patient Abuse and Neglect Reporting Requirements...
especially unusual, since under normal conditions, dialysis patients rarely code. After two patients, Thelma Metcalf and Clara Strange, died of cardiac arrest...
results. A case series published in 2012 describes the treatment of fivepatients with Schamberg's disease of the lower extremities using Advanced Fluorescence...
infections. VHF isolation guidelines dictate that all VHF patients (with the exception of dengue patients) should be cared for using strict contact precautions...
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