Playing With Bees - Large Print by Frederick S Southwick (Paperback)

About the Book

Modern healthcare systems are inefficient, costly and error prone. The author shares his at times treacherous journey challenging the status quo and adapting the100 million honey beehive system to transform healthcare delivery.

Book Synopsis

How did a 33-year-old mother of two children and former wife of the author end up in the ICU with less than 10% chance of survival?

Are you concerned or even scared to trust what you expect to receive as medical care today? Too many mistakes and wrongful procedures with little accountability.

As a physician-scientist and quality improvement director Dr. Frederick Southwick has searched for answers to a failing healthcare system. Ironically, during Southwick's quest to find an answer, he also suffered a medical error resulting in the loss of his leg.

As a patient his concerns about the medical error that led to his disability were silenced. His perspective as both an injured patient and a front-line physician provide unique insights into the challenges and solutions for transforming our costly and error-prone healthcare systems.

Playing with Bees is his answer. His book explores several levels: the challenge of improving safety in medicine; a deep look into author's first hand experiences; and insights into how he thinks as an expert as he addresses a myriad of healthcare issues.

The writing is crisp and easy to read, the fast-paced narrative flowing like a novel. Who would have thought that honeybees could provide many of the answers. The reader comes away with a new appreciation of the dangers of medical care and with hope for a safer future.

Review Quotes

"Fred's courage, persistence, and willingness to tolerate multiple stings eventually led to major successes at the local level. Reading about his real-life examples and lived experiences will help both patients and those dedicated to improving patient care quality and safety navigate the at times treacherous terrain of the US healthcare system. He ends with a vision of the ideal health system that we should all aspire to achieve, and he creatively illuminates the 100-million-year-old honeybee system as the framework for the transformation of our healthcare system."

-Donald M., Berwick, MD MPP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

"In this candidly personal, scientifically informed, and often deeply moving book, Dr. Fred Southwick sheds light on numerous problems plaguing health care in hospitals and prescribes a powerful solution: systems-sensitive leadership. Using the fascinating metaphor of bees and their cooperative hives, he shows that the difference in the quality of outcomes - sometimes life or death - lies in how well leaders empower others in a complex system to carry out their work in harmony. This is a powerful message that should resonate beyond health care to leaders in all sectors."

-Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ph.D., Harvard Business School professor and author, most recently, of Think Outside the Building: How Advanced Leaders Can Change the World One Smart Innovation at a Time

"Fred Southwick describes how he went from laboratory physician to expert in health care safety. It all began when his wife almost died from a medical error. Later, Fred himself lost a limb after surgery. He then used his scientific skill to understand how medical errors happen and how they can be prevented. He discovered that health care safety requires a team where errors are few; actions are well designed and executed; and everyone is committed to excellence."

-Mark A. Kelley MD - pulmonary-critical care physician and educator at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

"In this remarkable book, Dr. Fred Southwick recounts lessons from a long career spent analyzing and addressing our problems with quality, safety and patient respect. Even more important he shows us that there are plenty of solutions, ranging from major systemic changes to specific practices at the frontlines on the wards. The biggest barrier is our inherent resistance to change, which thwarts political consensus and saps political will. Here too, Dr. Southwick provides important guidance on the way forward. Anyone interested in fighting for an effective, affordable, safe, and just health care system should read this book."

--Vikas Saini, M.D. President, Lown Institute

"The bee community metaphor is perfect in highlighting the system nature of the problem and of its solution. Healthcare does depend on individual excellence, even genius, but, fundamentally, success is a "systems effect". It depends on effective collaboration, so many individual efforts integrate harmoniously through collective action towards common purpose.

Bravo to Dr. Southwick for a lifetime of commitment to his individual patients and even more so for his devotion to fostering systems of care by which he and his colleagues have far greater chance of being successfully in doing truly great things for us and those we love."

-Steve Spear, DBA MS MS MIT Sloan School of Management, Senior Lecturer