What if hospitals and doctors could quietly bury their mistakes? This
fascinating, best-selling novel tells you why they can't.
Three young men from different backgrounds have graduated from medical
schools and have become surgical fellows at a leading teaching hospital
in Boston. They learn to become surgeons, to communicate with patients
and families, and to be observed and appraised by their peers and
professors on daily rounds. And each month - sometimes with dry mouth
and rapid pulse - each attends the meeting of the Mortality Conference,
known to all as the Death Committee, which examines every patient loss
for possible human error, in order to prevent it from happening again.
How the Death Committee affects and is affected by the lives, loves, and
ambitions of three new doctors is the theme of this intriguing and
profoundly moving novel.