the moral alibi: how healthcare learned to look away and how we see again

The Moral Alibi

In The Moral Alibi, physician and healthcare executive Sachin H. Jain examines a troubling paradox at the heart of American healthcare: good people can recognize that a system is failing and still find compelling reasons to continue participating in the very practices that perpetuate its problems.

Through candid reflection on his own experiences and compromises, Jain examines the organizational cultures, leadership behaviors, incentives, and institutional habits that can cause healthcare organizations to drift from their fundamental purpose: caring for patients. He explores how conflict avoidance, administrative complexity, performative innovation, and the tendency to blame “the system” can allow dysfunction to persist even among people genuinely committed to making healthcare better.