Escape Fire – Designs for the Future of Health Care

In this provocative and much-needed book, health care expert Dr. Donald Berwick shares eleven of his most compelling speeches. These unforgettable speeches (which were delivered at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care from 1992 to 2002) dramatically show that we need to create a new system that guarantees that every patient has the benefit of care drawn from the best scientific knowledge available. No mere diatribe, Berwick's vision for change includes practical suggestions and tools that can truly transform our broken system and puts the patient at the center of the health care system.

"In this vibrant book, Don Berwick speaks about one of the most vexing issues of our time with compelling competence, penetrating clarity, relentless honesty, and heart-warming humor. In an era when so many public voices lack these qualities, Berwick gives us reason to hope that our most difficult social problems have solutions that are within reach. We are the solution, of course-if we are willing to emulate the intellectual and moral courage modeled by leaders like Don Berwick."
-Parker J. Palmer, author, The Courage to Teach and Let Your Life Speak

"[Berwick's] target is a health care system that has evolved primarily to serve the needs and interests of those who work in the system-doctors, nurses, administrators, payors, insurers-rather than the needs and interests of patients."
-from the Introduction by Frank Davidoff