Law Firm Resources & News

We write about this issue frequently – being asked to waive your access to the local court system, in a nursing home contract. I would venture to say that at least 75% of Virginia Nursing Home contracts have arbitration agreements in them today. It isn’t just a Virginia issue however – Today’s Wall Street Journal…

By now almost everyone knows that lead paint is extremely dangerous for infants and children. Lead may cause a range of health effects, from behavioral problems and learning disabilities, to seizures and death. Children six years old and under are most at risk. Kudos to Jersey City, NJ! According to an ordinance to be presented…

Let me make my concession right up front. Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, for the most part, provides the residents of Western Virginia with high-end medical care. Further, Carilion is the economic engine which drives Roanoke and the surrounding area. However, it is not a nonprofit hospital regardless of what members of that institution tell you.…

This sad story comes to us from Richmond, Virginia and was reported in today’s Richmond Times Dispatch newspaper. Wendy Reardon’s father, age 90, was admitted to a local nursing home for rehabilitation after shoulder surgery. Her father is blind and wears hearing aids in both ears. “I was told he was supposed to see a…

The “frontline” care provider in nursing homes is the nursing staff. That staff is made up of Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Certified Nursing Aides. The problem is that nursing homes, in an attempt to decrease overhead and increase profits, have too few nurses taking care of too many residents! We often see each…

This is the trend: FDA approves your drug, stock sales go up and up, shareholders are happy, company is happy. Few thousand cardiologists stop prescribing your drug because a recent study shows it doesn’t help cholesterol as expected, and severe side effects exist, stock prices go down, company is not happy. So what does the…

Researchers examined the records of 6,000 patients who were given blood transfusions during heart-bypass or heart-valve surgery. All of the patients were treated at the Cleveland Clinic from June 30, 1998, through January 30, 2006. The study was published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine. The conclusion: Heart surgery patients were more likely…

Ok, so the defense in nursing home cases often will say “we can’t watch your loved one every minute of every day” – “falls happen, pressure sores are unpreventable, some elderly people just refuse medicine and treatment” but how do you defend this? DEATH BY FIRE ANTS in a NURSING HOME… Case of Devers v.…

A Peoria, Illinois nursing home has been fined $40,000 stemming from violations in July of 2007 for not developing or implementing a plan to reduce the number and frequencies of falls experienced by its residents. According to documents from the state department of health, Manor Court of Peoria did not properly supervise three patients at…

I am happy to report that nursing homes are reducing their use of, and reliance upon, restraints. Restraints come in a variety of styles and uses from wrist restraints….to leg restraints…to lap belt restraints…to vest restraints. For years, many nursing homes over-used restraints to limit the mobility of residents thereby reducing the need for care,…

In Today’s Wallstreet Journal, our local paper, and on the AP – “Late approval of Drugs linked to safety issues.” Hardly a week goes by without new research reflecting certain medications have unknown, serious side effects…At least three major drugs have been pulled from pharmacy shelves in the last four years (Vioxx, Baycol, amd Rexulin)…