A recent study of the epidemiology of hospital in paitent falls, their characteristics and circumstances was conducted in a 1300 bed facility over a thirteen week period.  A multifaceted intervention program was used which included daily assessment of fall risk, review of the prevention measures with the patient or family, signage, and other strategies resulted in a reduction of falls by 23%.

Here is a USA Today report which ranks the nation’s hospitals death rates.  It provides links to several formats you can use to compare hospitals with one another in your region or across the nation.

Check it out here.  http://tiny.cc/IYES3

In this very interesting, yet sad story, Mark Taylor tells of real estate agent, Donna Dunham’s death at the hands of medical staff.  Unfortunately this type of thing happens all too often.  Accoring to the story, Dunham’s children had repeatedly warned hospital staff that their mother was allergic to codeine and morphine and that a previous allergic reaction to the narcotics had made her seriously ill. Despite repeated cautioning, a Pinnacle doctor allegedly ignored those warnings and administered morphine. Ms. Dunham is no longer enjoying BINGO.  Read the full story here http://tiny.cc/yBb4j

In a case of first impression, a Bergen County, N.J., judge has ruled that a plaintiff can compel the videotaping of her own deposition, even if the deposing party opposes it.

Superior Court Judge Rachelle Harz wrote that a plaintiff-driven recording does not run afoul of the court rule governing videotaped depositions and that any party may videotape a deposition.

Defense counsel had argued that the request to videotape the proposal would limit how attorneys conducted discovery. In the ruling, Superior Court Judge Rachelle Harz noted that videotaping has become a common practice in most jurisdictions and the plaintiff’s request does not run afoul of rules governing recorded depositions. The case is LaMarche v. Hackensack University Medical Center.  Maria Vogel-Short, Law.com  08/21/2008

http://tiny.cc/KYMc3

In a federal report released Wednesday, Labor Department officials announced that workplace fatalities have dropped to their lowest level since the agency began tracking such statistics. Officials attributed the drop to increased outreach by Occupational Safety and Health Administration. However, union officials were quick to note that the overall drop may have been caused by a decline in workplace transportation deaths – an area not regulated by OSHA – and to point out several fatal construction and industrial accidents.  Dan Frosch, The New York Times  08/20/2008

Read more in this interesting article. http://tiny.cc/5fJq5

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the so-called “never events,” the most serious types of medical errors, occurred at least once every six days in Utah hospitals during 2007. Among the 57 serious medical errors, also referred to as sentinel events, 27 resulted in fatalities.

Utah started tracking never events, also called sentinel events, in 2001, after a landmark study by the Institute of Medicine titled “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System.” The IOM estimates medical errors may cause 98,000 deaths a year. 
Heather May, The Salt Lake Tribune  08/19/2008

For more on this interesting yet disturbing story go to http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10238367 

In my daily business I am faced with this huge elephant called HIPPA.  Most people have no idea what it is really all about.  It stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.  It was initially intended to make it easier for a patient to obtain continuity of care between providers.  Most of the staff I come into contact with think that it is only a privacy act. 

The DesMoines Register had a story recently that indicated the “privacy” is most definately missing from HIPPA.  In one case, a local newspaper releawsed a story which included a patient’s full name and detailed descriptions of her medical conditions.  Since the HIPPA law was enacted in 2003, almost no charges have been brought under HIPPA guidelines.

Read more at http://tiny.cc/iQGcI 

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling will make it more difficult and more expensive for employers to win age discrimination lawsuits.

In recent years, Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory has been charged with designing prototype naval nuclear reactors and with training Navy personnel to run them. The demands for naval nuclear reactors changed with the end of the Cold War, however, and for fiscal year 1996 Knolls was ordered by the federal government to reduce its work force.

Knolls had its managers score their subordinate employees on “performance,” “flexibility,” and “critical skills.” These scores, along with points for years of service, were used to determine who was laid off. Of the 31 employees let go, 30 were at least 40 years old. Several of the laid-off employees filed suit against Knolls, and they asserted a disparate-impact claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA).

To show such an impact, the employees relied on a statistical expert’s testimony that results so skewed according to age could rarely occur by chance; and that the scores for “flexibility” and “criticality,” over which managers had the most discretionary judgment, had the firmest statistical ties to the outcomes.

The jury found for employees on the disparate-impact claim, and the federal circuit of appeals initially affirmed. Knolls appeals to the U. S. Supreme Court, which sent the case back for a rehearing, on which Knolls prevailed in the lower court.

On the second appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court, however, in a 7-1 ruling, the court said that when cases are brought under the so-called “disparate impact” theory of discrimination, employers have the burden of proof of showing that there was a reasonable factor other than age to explain the disparate impact on older workers.

In an opinion authored by Justice David Souter, the court said when it is shown that an employer’s action creates a disparate impact on older workers, the ADEA creates a specific exemption from liability: was there a reasonable factor other than age to account for the disparate impact?

If so, the burden is on employer to prove the reasonable factor, under the familiar principle that “when a proviso carves an exception out of the body of a statute those who set up such exception must prove it.”

As Justice Souter put it, “there is no denying that putting employers to the work of persuading factfinders that their choices are reasonable makes it harder and costlier to defend. We have to read it the way Congress wrote it.”

Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, June 19, 2008.

With permission from The Elder Law Practice of Timothy L. Takacs.

As a social networker myself, I found this to be VERY interesting.  This article by Julie Kay of the National Law Journal tells how the popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook has become a valuable tool for attorneys and jury consultants seeking to vet jurors. Information gleaned from personal Web sites, blogs and other Internet sources can reveal important information that jurors may not divulge on jury questionnaires or during voir dire.  

“Last year, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., jury consultant Amy Singer was doing Internet research on potential jurors for a products liability case involving a maintenance worker who was severely injured after being forced to get inside a machine to clean it.

Singer — who was working for the plaintiffs attorney — hit paydirt when she found out that one of the jurors divulged on his MySpace page that he belonged to a support group for claustrophobics. ”

“Hirschhorn recalled a recent case in which a juror checked “no affiliations” on his juror questionnaire and, through Internet research, Hirschhorn discovered that he belonged to “fringe right-wing” conservative groups. ”

Read more at http://tiny.cc/bZ5LA

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has filed a lawsuit against a Dallas-area nursing home after a resident died when their oxygen respirator stopped during a power outage. According to the lawsuit, Brookhaven Nursing Center failed to maintain minimum health and safety standards during the electrical storm earlier this year. The suit seeks an order for the facility to improve safety standards and civil penalties.  Senitra Horbrook, McKinney Courier-Gazette  08/11/2008

Read more here:  http://tiny.cc/tgVwo