Law Firm Resources & News

HealthGrades has released their “Fourth Annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study.” HealthGrades researches and reports information on patient safety in hospitals throughout the United States. They use the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicators to “identify the patient safety incident rates for every non-federal hospital in the country using three…

Anyone with experience knows that dementia is a sad and scary disease. Typically physicians treat symptoms of dementia with antipsychotic medications to reduce some of the manifestations of the disease, like aggressiveness etc. A recent study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine this month, followed older adults with dementia between 1 April 1997 and…

A Superior Court (San Diego, California) jury awarded $5.7 million in damages to a bedridden man who claimed a doctor failed to diagnose his skin cancer. The verdict is the largest medical-malpractice award in California this year, but will be cut to $1.9 million under a state statute limiting damages in malpractice suits. Regis M.…

Health Management Associates, Naples, Fla., has agreed to sell 133-bed Mountain View Regional Medical Center, Norton, Va., and 50-bed Lee Regional Medical Center, Pennington Gap, Va., to Wellmont Health System, of Kingsport, Tenn. Although the terms were not disclosed, I imagine there is a pretty big pricetag. Read more – modernhealthcare.com. The purpose? President of…

Sermo, a company out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, has partnered with the American Medical Association (AMA) to create a forum that encourages doctors to swap ideas and information over the internet. While the company set this up as a tool for investment firms, the doctors seem to like the sense of community and ease of use.…

Want to check on a certain nursing home? See how they have been doing? You can go to medicare’s website to look for citations – www.medicare.gov You can make a Freedom of Information Act request to your local state health authority (in Va. call 1-800-955-1819) and ask for the most recent state survey results; You…

Wow! $1.3 million dollar sanction ordered against a hospital for misconduct in a pending malpractice lawsuit. Failing to answer discovery truthfully, tell the plaintiff’s family who individuals with knowledge were — and even after the $6 million dollar plaintiff’s verdict, now the hospital must pay $1.3 million in sanctions. Read all about it – and…

Ivy League-educated pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman sat on the stand in a Boston area court this month, defending himself in a malpractice suit involving the death of a 12-year-old patient, when the opposing counsel startled him with a question. Was he Lindeman Flea? It appears Dr. Lindeman authored a blog under the assumed name, Lindeman…

The Naples Daily News reports 47 residents of ManorCare Health Services, a 118-bed nursing home in East Naples, Florida became ill late last week from what could be the Norwalk virus with symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. Read the new article here. Norwalk virus, from the norovirus class, can cause acute gastroenteritis in humans and…

I saw in an article today in USA Today, a man with drug-resistant TB decided to take a trip a couple of weeks ago and now at least two countries are scrambling to locate people who might have traveled near him. Health officials want to alert those individuals that they may have come in contact…