Dan Frith

I don’t think this is breaking news to most of the readers of Legal Medicine, but it does offer confirmation of what we discuss and write about every week. The American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) has concluded the nursing home certification process is broken and…

By now most Americans have read that Medicare has decided it will not pay hospital bills for “Never Events,” which are defined as errors in medical care that are clearly identifiable, preventable, and serious in their consequences for patients, and indicate a real problem in the safety and credibility of…

I ran across an Associated Press article about nursing home owners wanting higher Medicaid reimbursement rates from the state of Texas. I have no problem with their request. However, any increase in reimbursement rates should be tied to better nursing home care….including higher salaries for nurse assistants and all staff.…

Did you know that Virginia law requires doctors to report evidence of elderly abuse? The statute (Va. Code § 63.2-1606) requires doctors to immediately report suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of adults to the local department or the adult protective services. Why? Because physicians, often emergency room physicians, are uniquely…

Hardy a week goes by that I don’t read an announcement in the Roanoke Times about a new “hospitalist” hired by Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Do you know what a hospitalist is? Most people do not!The old system was easy to understand. Hospitals granted privileges to physicians to admit and…

Do you remember reading about the gastroenterologist in Las Vegas, Dr. Dipak Desai and his Shadow Lane Clinic? You know… the doctor whose patients (numbering in the thousands) were advised by health authorities to undergo testing for hepatitis and HIV. Authorities investigating a cluster of hepatitis C cases observed clinic…