Expertise
Legal Nurse Consultants: 4 Medical Record Analysis Barriers
What are the 4 most common medical record analysis barriers you will encounter as a legal nurse consultant? Disorganized medical records The records come into your possession in no particular order. They were scanned and saved to a disk before they were organized, which requires you to sift through them to rearrange pages. You may…
Read MorePatient falls: what went wrong?
Legal nurse consultants who handled medical malpractice cases often make decisions about liability for patient falls. A review of nursing malpractice claims dealing with many different types of claims revealed that the allegations fit into one of these six categories: failure to follow standards of care; failure to use equipment in a responsible manner; failure…
Read MoreSurprising Verdict: Fractured Wrist
Right now I have been reading recent medical malpractice verdicts to find great examples to include in a new book. The one below got my attention. It was a surprising verdict. Surprising verdict in a fractured wrist case The fifty-three year old plaintiff went through cervical surgery. When she awoke, her left wrist was swollen…
Read MoreNursing Liability for Spinal Cord Injury
A patient arrives in the emergency department with a possible spinal cord injury. Or a patient falls in the hospital. One of the first things, which nurses must do, is to assess the patient and determine if there are any changes from the baseline assessment. Recognition of changes in assessment and changes from the baseline…
Read MoreLegal Nurse Consulting: Part of a Fast Growing Sector (Ed-Med)
Legal nurse consulting is part of the largest sector of jobs in the U.S. economy and the fastest growing sector in the rest of the world: the Ed-Med sector. This means the jobs devoted to education or medicine/health care. We know that manufacturing is on the decline and the service industry is on the rise,…
Read MoreIdeas for Legal Nurse Consulting Newsletters
Many legal nurse consultants use a legal nurse consulting newsletter (paper or electronic) or a blog as a way to develop a relationship with the attorneys who they want to attract to their website or services. I will use the terms of newsletter or blog interchangeably in this blog post. Goals of creating a legal…
Read MoreWhy Medical Records can be Defective
Medical records can be defective. We know that as legal nurse consultants. The analysis of cases involving medical issues rests heavily on being able to extract meaningful information from medical records. Why are some electronic medical records inherently defective? Medical record software program defects One reason why medical records can be defective is an inadequate…
Read More“If you didn’t chart it, you didn’t do it” Part 3: The Nursing Home Defense Perspective
Do you subscribe to “If you didn’t chart it you didn’t do it”? Incomplete nursing records plague all types of settings and complicate nursing home defense strategies. Nursing homes are particularly vulnerable due to the low number of professional staff available to document. Nursing homes have many challenges, many of which directly affect the quality…
Read MoreExpert Witness Evaluation of Liability for Healthcare Fall
Injurious healthcare falls are one of the most common reasons why providers are sued. Spinal cord injuries, head injuries, and fractures make these serious cases for attorneys and nursing expert witnesses. Many states have regulations that govern who is qualified to act as a liability expert. These factors make a strong expert witness: a combination…
Read MoreAnalyzing liability for a healthcare fall
You’re a legal nurse consultant asked to be involved in analyzing liability for a healthcare fall. When injurious falls occur in a healthcare facility, a lawsuit may result. Here are some of the common deviations from the standard of care that may lead to a fall. The plaintiff’s expert witness may allege any of these…
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