The incidence rate for falls in nursing home residents is two to three times greater than that in community-dwelling elderly (about 1.7 falls per bed annually). Ten to 25% of falls among institutionalized elderly result in a fracture, laceration, or need for hospital care. Preventing falls constitutes a significant challenge in nursing home settings and…
That confusion or changes in mentation is often a first sign of an infection in elderly patients? Often a family or care staff member will say their elder loved one has just “not been themselves” the past couple of days, and when they go to the hospital they are often “Septic” with some infection. A…
Skin Care: Court Accepts Physician, Rejects Nurse as Expert on Cause of Patient’s Bedsores. After the patient’s passing, his wife sued the hospital for malpractice and wrongful death over six separate bedsores that started and progressed to deep tissue ulcers while the patient was in the hospital’s ICU being treated for pneumonia. The hospital asked…
Arbitration: Case Did Not Involve Medical Malpractice “The accident was apparently caused by the front wheels getting hung up on the bed’s electrical power cord lying across the floor of her room. ” Patient safety should always be the top priority in care ~ This demonstrates how a devastating injury can occur from something that…
Falls can be problematic with the elderly in Nursing Homes—especially so after a hospitalization. Often the returning patient can be disoriented and at a heightened risk for falling and require additional interventions to keep them safe. Ongoing nursing assessments are crucial for keeping patients safe with appropriate safety interventions maintained. CASE REVIEW: Patient Fall: County…
My interview with Tom Crosley at Crosley Law regarding what to look for in a Traumatic Brain Injury cases.
In this hurry up paced work environment most nurses find themselves in, it is easy to see how certain tasks may get shortchanged in an effort for efficiency. Everyone is pressed for time- yet there are specific tasks nurses must do each shift and do quickly. One area that should never be shortchanged is documentation.…
Sepsis is a life-threatening, medical emergency affecting approximately one million persons annually in the United States (NIH, 2017). Patients hospitalized with sepsis are eight times more likely to die during hospitalization (Hall et al., 2011). Sepsis is defined as “a life-threatening complication of an infection”. Many doctors view sepsis as a three-stage syndrome, starting with…
Did you know….. That having a Legal Nurse Consultant review your medical malpractice or injury cases can save an attorney hundreds of dollars in unbillable time? Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (CLNC’s) are registered nurses who have expertise in the healthcare system and can analyze complex medical records involved in medical malpractice, personal injury, insurance defense…
That having a Legal Nurse Consultant review your medical malpractice or injury cases can save an attorney hundreds of dollars in unbillable time? Certified Legal Nurse Consultants (CLNC’s) are registered nurses who have expertise in the healthcare system and are able to analyze complex medical records involved in medical malpractice, personal injury, insurance defense or…
Pressure wounds (also called bedsores) can develop in as quickly as 2 hours (“Bedsores,” 2015) and can take months to heal? Constant pressure against the skin causes a decreased blood supply to the area causing tissue injury and tissue death leading to a pressure wound. These wounds commonly happen to patients who are unable to change their…
Every 20 minutes an older adult dies from a fall? Millions of older people, those 65 and older, fall— and falling once doubles your chances of falling again! (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016) Falls are also the most common cause of non-fatal injuries and of hospital admissions for trauma. Falls in a hospital…
Stress can be a motivator or a destructor of your health? It’s all in how we channel it. Left unchecked and undealt with, chronic stress can and will wreak havoc on your health. When we have a chronic high stressed life, our bodies will become fatigued, we have difficulty concentrating, are irritable. Muscles are in…
