Atul Gawande Being Mortal Summary

Atul Gawande’s book, Being Mortal, focuses on end-of-life care for patients in the American healthcare system. Gawande includes evidence along with anecdotes from his own life surrounding his career as a surgeon and his role in helping family members navigate their own end-of-life decisions. Much of Gawande’s argument rests on the premise that while end-of-life care in the American healthcare system is heroic and equipped with the best possible advancements in medicine, it too often fails the patients it is supposed to help. A large part of Being Mortal focuses on the doctor-patient relationship (especially in the context of shared-decision making) and how we often fail to recognize the things that are most important for our elderly in their

Such decisions often come at a great cost to the healthcare system, and at a greater emotional, psychological, and social cost to the patients and families of these patients who are receiving such treatments. Gawande’s book is very pertinent to the present day and has by many accounts sparked a national discussion on end-of-life care and how we treat our elderly. With elderly people accounting for a greater proportion of the American populace and as people start living even longer than they do now, end-of-life care will become and remain a major issue faced by doctors, patients, their families, and the healthcare system. Additionally, with our greater focus on improving patient outcomes while getting the most value for our healthcare dollars, end-of-life care is a major area that healthcare systems and hospitals will focus on, as it accounts for a large portion of their budget. As a response to the need to take care of our aging population, hospice care and palliative medicine are some of the newer specialties in the medical field that have been increasing in popularity and more research needs to be focused in these areas to better understand how to improve patient outcomes.

Many of his suggestions provided revolve around training doctors to better assist patients in end-of-life care decisions and to ask pertinent questions and have frank discussions on the matter that encompass more than just medical care, which is what much of the literature provides. However, while many of these suggestions can be implemented, one relevant question is whether healthcare providers, when faced with these critical junctures, always have the time to do so, especially if it is a time-sensitive intervention that requires quick thinking. This may be why Gawande advocates for planning beforehand with the family/patient regarding their desires for end-of-life care, so that if this critical juncture is reached, the best decision is made that accords with the wishes of the