$99.95 (Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section) ABA Members, Log in now to receive this discount!
$99.95 (Senior Lawyers Division) ABA Members, Log in now to receive this discount!
About Litigating the Nursing Home Case
The nursing homes of twenty-first-century America are lucrative investments largely because of their owners' ability to control the consequences of misconduct or errors in patient care. Most homes do most tasks well, while others lag far behind. Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid drive down the rates of reimbursement payments for patients' care, forcing the pragmatic accountants who run many nursing homes today into minimal compliance and minimal staffing.
Although litigation remedies are available to deter malpractice and disregard for patient needs, the statistical odds are against the plaintiffs. Absent a vigorous independent counterweight to the industry's collective power, society needs to have advocates for the individual patient's legal rights. If not tort lawyers, who else could deter even worse conditions within some nursing homes? This book provides the step-by-step guidance needed to litigate a nursing home case.
James T. O'Reilly begins by examining the nursing home environment, the state of ownership and administration, and the responsibilities and liabilities of management, nurses and physicians. This exhaustive reference then examines liability issues, including ulcers and infection problems; fall-related injuries; wandering and escape issues; assault and abuse; patient restraints; drug problems; malnutrition, dehydration, and choking, and more. Finally, the book provides detailed instruction regarding assembling a complaint, filing a motion, defenses, arbitration, trials, verdicts, settlements, and more.
Nursing homes are a business whose margins depend on controlling costs, yet whose "customers" are much more at risk with each cost-based reduction in protection. This market is projected to grow another 30% in some states by 2025, but statutory tort law of the states has often been stacked sharply against plaintiff tort actions for compensation from nursing homes. This extensive book is a must for any lawyer who represents the victimized patients whose poor care has resulted in extensive pain or premature death.
