Free Autographed Copy of Schizo

Everybody loves free stuff, right? Enter my Goodreads Giveaway for a free autographed copy of my new book Schizo: Hidden in Plain Sight


Goodreads Book Giveaway

Schizo by Ilene B. Benator

Schizo

by Ilene B. Benator

Giveaway ends April 23, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
Enter Giveaway


Another 5 Star Review!

So far, all the reviews have been great. Here's another 5 star review!

(Spoilers edited out)

Reviewed By Romuald Dzemo for Readers’ Favorite

A schizophrenic patient, Catherine, has visions of patients in terrible danger in Chicago hospitals, visions that could be dismissed out of hand as delusions, except that every detail checks out...Ilene B. Benator’s Schizo: Hidden in Plain Sight is absorbingly riveting, a tale that is as seductive as it is terrifying.

[Continued on Goodreads Blog]

5 Star Review


My first completely independent review from Readers' Favorite is a 5 star review! See link for the non spoiler excerpt (the first paragraph has too many spoilers for me to publish in its entirety).

Reviewed By Cheryl E. Rodriguez for Readers’ Favorite...

 Please pre-order on amazon via link.

The Last Chance for Romance


Some years ago, I got a chance to listen to Michael Palmer speak. He had a lot of great advice. Someone asked him what he least enjoyed about being an author. One of his answers echoed what I heard from other famous authors: going to print.
Please read the rest of this article I blogged on Goodreads.

Why bother getting a publisher?

Again, I have published on my Goodreads blog, an article about my reading/writing experience. A short excerpt:

There are a lot of talented authors who decide to self publish for many reasons. Some want all the profits for themselves. Some are not interested in playing the painful games required to get an agent and/or publisher...


Goodreads Blog

Hi there, I am linking and posting a partial of my blog that I am doing for my new book Schizo. It is on Goodreads.

Here is a partial excerpt:

First, a brief intro.

I am an Emergency Physician. And I write. I have always been writing. I recall in 2nd grade and for a few years, instead of buying a card for my grandmother, I wrote my own--creating my own poems for the inside. I wish she saved them!

(Continued at Goodreads Blog)

Also, please pre-order my book on Amazon.

MedMal Book Excerpt and Reviews

If you want to see a detailed review by Dr. Andrew M.D., J.D. of my book, "How to Survive a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit" see link. She writes, "…is one of the best books I have read on the subject…physicians should actually read it before the spectre of malpractice raises its ugly head. And then, if and when litigation strikes, read it again."

@KevinMD has posted an excerpt of my book on his blog. It is about how to prepare for the deposition.

Amazon.com has a few pages from the beginning of my book.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter 13 "Good documentation makes a difference" that you can't find anywhere else:

I've seen a lot said and written about the fact that good documentation will prevent a lawsuit. I disagree. Good documentation can go a long way to getting a defendant's verdict at trial. It might even be able to help you get your case dismissed. But good documentation rarely prevents someone from being sued.

Nevertheless, good documentation IS the cornerstone of a strong defense. But what is considered good documentation? There is a myth perpetuated amongst many physicians that the "less is more" tactic applies to their documentation. By this logic, the less you write, the less that can be twisted around and used against you.

However, juries perceive this differently. In an example of a missed brain bleed like a subarachnoid hemorrhage, it is better to mention something about it in your documentation. From the jury's point of view, it is better to consider something, use your judgment, and be wrong, than not to consider something at all. Judgment calls usually lean towards the defense.

Careless doctors who don't even consider a brain bleed end up with plaintiff's verdicts. So abandon the "less is more" guidance for chart documentation. Instead, realize that the more you write the better it is for your case.

Regarding documentation, it should go without saying, but I will say it anyway due to its extreme importance: Never alter your chart. Anytime you retroactively buff your chart, it will come back to haunt you.

Whatever you think might be damaging that you feel the need to change, is actually very defensible compared to an altered chart. Good attorneys can make bad charts appear good. Nobody can repair the damage to a case once it is revealed that you altered the chart.

Sometimes there are mistakes that were made in the documentation that you noticed long before any claim was made against you. You are permitted to correct mistakes by two methods: 1) Draw one line through it, write the word "error," then time and date the alteration. 2) Add a separate addendum. Once a claim is made, however, no addendums should be added.

There is another circumstance that deserves mention. For instance, it is possible, even likely, that your carefully prepared chart can be lost by the billers and/or medical records department. Most facilities will inform you of charts that have not yet been completed. And it is usually part of your responsibilities to your employer and/or the hospital to have fully completed charting.

If you have a situation where you are being told to prepare a chart for a patient you no longer remember, months after rendering your care, do so only if you feel you can honestly recreate a chart based on available materials at your disposal.

In this special situation, you would be better off having minimal documentation that would lead to under-billing the patient, than to have a chart that could be misconstrued as falsified. In fact, for legal purposes, it might be better to avoid any delayed charting whatsoever, and leave the documentation incomplete. This is especially true if this patient had a bad outcome and could possibly lead to a lawsuit.



Pre-Order on Amazon

PRE-ORDER

Amazon site has been created with pre-order capability. Please pre-order and help my rank get started before launch.

Here's a teaser for the book:

In the same vein as Robin Cook and Michael Palmer, Dr. Ilene B. Benator crafts a terrifying medical thriller that is sure to excite.

An ambitious future surgeon on his psychiatry rotation is assigned a patient who reveals to him information about an organized plot to control the population. His pursuit of the truth leads him to become a psychiatric patient in the same facility.

Dan Greenberg was a promising medical student who was derailed by Catherine--a bizarre schizophrenic patient whose delusions about patients in danger at hospitals all around Chicago were startlingly specific.

Drawn by both curiosity and compassion, Dan investigates, discovering that they were exactly where Catherine said they would be. Who are these people? Why are they in danger? Are they connected with each other?

While incarcerated, he joins forces with an unlikely ally Jake--who murdered his family during a drug-induced psychotic break, but is also a charming hacker with street smarts who creates a plan to get Dan's life back. In his attempts to do so, he threatens to uncover a conspiracy to track and manipulate the population by a cabal of influential people who will do anything to keep their plot secret. He will learn just how far powerful people will go to stay in control, and the high price of the truth.

Schizo takes readers on a wildly unexpected journey into the what-ifs of medical science. Written by an Emergency Physician, Ilene B. Benator crafts situations that are terrifying, yet all too believable.

Ilene B Benator



New Book!

I have been holding back until all the "i's" were dotted and "t's" were crossed. And then for a cool book cover. But I cannot hold back any longer.

My first fiction novel is being published!

September 15th 2016.

Here is a quick teaser: An ambitious future surgeon on his psychiatry rotation is assigned a patient who reveals to him information about an organized plot to control the population. His pursuit of the truth leads him to become a psychiatric patient in the same facility.

And here is the cover: