Publications
Coming in Early 2008: The Guidebook Every Healthcare Consumer Needs
When you need a new doctor, how do you find one that will provide a high quality of care? If you disagree with your doctor about a diagnosis or treatment, what do you do? When your children are older, will they have reliable information about their family’s medical history? What is in your medical record and what does it mean? Why is any of this important?
DJ Iber Publishing will release a book in early 2008 that will help you answer these questions, prepare for various healthcare situations—and more.
If you’ve experienced any kind of health challenges, you probably know the importance of these issues and, most likely, you’ve had some frustrations with navigating your way through the healthcare system. This book can help you.
If you’re in good health right now, you may think you don’t need to worry about healthcare—but you do. At some point, most people need healthcare, and just like you need to create a will before you die, you need to get your healthcare plans in order before you’re sick. This book can help you, too
Whether you’re healthy or ill, this guidebook will show you how to become a more proactive participant in the management of your healthcare. The book, which weaves together stories of healthcare challenges with lessons learned to help you deal with your own challenges, will:
- Teach you to create your own healthcare values, vision, and mission statements
- Familiarize you with the information in your medical records so you can read them, understand them, and keep your own records.
- Recommend strategies for you to improve your communications with your doctors and other healthcare providers
- Describe the quality tools that you can use to decide where you want to receive your healthcare
- Discuss issues in healthcare ethics that could impact you and your care
- Provide a roadmap to the healthcare system so that you will feel more in control of your healthcare and the decisions you make
Meet the Author
Ruthann Russo, PhD, JD, MPH, RHIT, is a healthcare expert with more than 20 years of experience working in and advising healthcare organizations. She designed the HealthMap™ program to help healthcare consumers create plans for their own health that reflect their personal values, vision and mission. She works with physicians to help improve their documentation in patient medical records and to improve the quality of healthcare. She has personally instructed more than 3,000 physicians in hospitals across the country, including hospitals affiliated with the University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, and University of Massachusetts. She is the author of five books on the topics of health information, documenting in patient records, using medical record information, and ensuring medical bills are correct. She is a graduate of Dickinson College, American University’s Washington College of Law, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s program in public health, and Touro University, where she earned her doctoral degree in business administration. She is a Partner with the Bethlehem-based law firm Russo and Russo and a Managing Director with Navigant Consulting. Ruthann and her husband, Joe, an attorney in Pennsylvania and New York, have been married for 25 years. They have two children, Emmalea and John. They live in Center Valley, Pennsylvania and New York City. For more information please visit www.RuthannRusso.com.
If you are interested in receiving regular updates about the book and invitations to complimentary virtual book tours, webconferences, and podcasts, please send us your name and email address.