By and large, doctors and nurses are well-meaning, and most of the time, the system is working well and you will get good care. However, mistakes do happen. Follow the tips above to make sure that you are safe and well during every hospital stay.

To effectively engage patients and caregivers, it is critical that health care providers engage with empathy. With empathy we connect, we understand, we listen, and we communicate. We can engage and empower our patients to be proactive and in charge of their health.

Effectively engaging vulnerable patient populations in their care is attainable and vital, and will improve health outcomes and contain costs.

Many doctors, particularly young doctors, come to view test results as if handed down direct from the heavens -- and forget that context greatly alters their implications. It shouldn't be your burden to defend against this -- but alas, it is.

Verify you are getting the tests you need, and only the tests you need. Challenging such decisions is not an insult to your doctor. Simply, it is an affirmation of the fact that you, literally, have skin in the game.

In a specialist-driven system that aims to eradicate disease, sometimes we overlook the simpler need to alleviate patients' discomfort and distress.

We've all but lost the idea of reforming health care in our efforts to reform health insurance. But wise policymakers know that the best way to get results is to give people tools to practice prevention and wellness.

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a serious medical condition that can easily be overlooked because it mimics so many other disorders.

Sergey Brin's disclosure last week that he carries a genetic mutation increasing his risk for Parkinson's managed to put the genetics-driven revolution in health care back into the headlines.