Americans' haze about medicine

For most of the twentieth century, Americans lived in a Norman Rockwell, Marcus Welby haze about medicine. Doctors were wise and respected. Hospitals were though to be clean, quiet, safe, and well-equipped, well-intentioned charitable organizations. No one expected to be the victim of an error.

James B. Lieber, Killer Care: How Medical Error Became America's Third Largest Cause of Death, and What Can Be Done About It (New York: OR Books, 2015), Introduction.