Pleasant Law Blog (Insurance Claims, Medical Misakes, and Nursing Home Claims)

Nurse-to-Patient ratios have affected care in nursing homes.

Studies show that nurse-to-patient ratios have an affect on care in nursing homes. North Carolina should refer to California mandated staffing levels as it can improve the quality of care from nurse to patient.

Nursing Home Transparency Act: Some Hope For Nursing Home Injury/Death Victims and Their Attorneys

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ranking Republican on the Senat Finance Committee, and Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, introduced the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act (S. 2641) on Valentines Day 2008. It is the first comprehensive nursing home reform bill since the Nursing Home Reform Act, OBRA '87. Read the statement of the National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform (NCCNHR) on this bill, as well as press releases from these lawmakers at the link in the title to this blog. As I have stated in other blog entries, this bill is important to nursing home abuse, neglect, injury, and death victims, their families, and their lawyers; whether in North Carolina or other states.

Nursing Home Medical Director Liability in North Carolina Nursing Home Injury and Wrongful Death Cases

By North Carolina nursing home abuse, injury and wrongful death attorney Thomas W. Pleasant. Every nursing home has a medical director, a doctor who is responsible for, among other things, implementing and overseeing the proper and safe operation of the nursing home. Nursing home inspectors’ guidelines clearly show that the level of responsibility of these medical directors is high; yet it seems very common that medical directors are themselves unaware of the minimum standards placed upon them; and that these nursing home medical directors are only very minimally involved in the operation of the nursing home.

This can lead to direct medical director liability in some cases, and in some states. In North Carolina, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-21.18 states that medical directors of nursing homes cannot be named as defendants in a nursing home case except in cases where either (A) the “allegations involve a patient under the direct care of the medical director,” or (B) the “allegations involve willful or intentional misconduct, recklessness, or gross negligence in connection with the failure to supervise, or other acts performed or failed to be performed, by the medical director in a supervisory or consulting role.”

Clearly this legislation was enacted to provide some level of liability insulation for nursing home medical director physicians. The language, to me, is less than clear in some respects, and scant case law exists to help nursing home lawyers interpret the statute. This lack of judicial interpretation gives nursing home abuse, injury and wrongful death lawyers in North Carolina little guidance in determining whether to sue a medical director in a North Carolina lawsuit. For example, is the second part of the statute, “or other acts performed or failed to be performed,” also applicable o

 

nly in circumstances of willful or intentional misconduct, recklessness, or gross negligence? Considering that medical directors have clear supervisory responsibilities from the perspective of the federal government (via Medicare and its regulations and inspector survey guidelines), it would make no sense for “acts performed or failed to be performed” by the medical director “in a supervisory or consulting role” to have insulation from liability for harms caused by that nursing home medical director’s ordinary negligence.

A full analysis is not in order here; but there do appear to be legitimate questions for which judicial guidance is needed. If you have a situation involving nursing home injuries, wrongful death, abuse, or neglect, or any other type of medical error, negligence or malpractice problem in North Carolina; and you need a lawyer; feel free to contact The Law Offices of Thomas Waitt Pleasant. www.Pleasantlaw.com .

For more information on nursing home abuse specifically, see http://www.pleasantlaw.com/practice_areas/nursing-home-abuse-neglect1.cfm . Medicare (CMS) also has plenty of good information about nursing homes and their regulation. See http://www.medicare.gov/Nursing/Overview.asp.