Last spring, HensonFuerst senior partner Bob Fuerst was contacted by Sue Humphreys (far right) and Jerry Dawson of ALS. Sue is the director of care services and Jerry is the executive director. After discussing the needs of the local chapter, the 2009 HensonFuerst Health Initiative funded the annual NC ALS Support Group Facilitators Conference, the name of which was actually changed to add “sponsored by HensonFuerst.” Our partner, Anne Duvoisin (beside Bob Fuerst, far left), made a presentation to the conference, which was held on July 25, about challenges ALS patients face in assisted-and-long-term care. Today, the 2009 HensonFuerst Health Initiative received this fine award, which was accepted by Bob & Anne on behalf of the entire HensonFuerst family. The local ALS Association chapter is named in honor of Jim “Catfish” Hunter, thus the home plate-shaped plaque.

HensonFuerst Partner Anne Duvoisin was a speaker at the American Advocates for Justice nursing home litigation seminar in Chicago, Illinois this past weekend.  Her topic related to nursing home ownership transparency and accountability.  For a complete listing of seminar topics , click on the link below:
Agenda

Our  Court of Appeals upheld a punitive damages award against a business for putting self-protection from litigation ahead of customer safety as a matter of policy.  In so holding, the Court wrote: “This evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to Ms.Everhart, shows that, although Mr. Witherspoon knew Ms. Everharthad ingested some unknown substance that had made her sick, he refused to find out what she had actually been served or the first aid protocol for that substance before completing O’Charley’s'incident report form. Moreover, that form is not designed to provide assistance to the customer, but is focused on “anticipat[ing] . . . litigation.” A jury could reasonably find from this evidence that Mr. Witherspoon chose to give preference to protecting O’Charley’s from possible litigation over providing assistance to Ms. Everhart who had been served a possibly toxic substance.” To read the full opinion, click on the link below:
Everhart v. O’Charley’s 10.6.09 ncapp

Encourage your senators and representatives in Congress to vote for the Nursing Home Transparency Act, w hich will require nursing home owners to identify themselves.  For years, the nursing home industry has dodged its responsibility to nursing home patients by hiding who the owners and operators are.  Only a person or company with a license can operate a nursing home.  Often, nursing home operators create many companies to run one company, making sure that the company with the license has no assets, no employees and no insurance.  Lawyers trying to sue the responsible parties when nursing home patients are seriously injured or killed is sometimes impossible. When it is possible, a lengthy and expensive legal investigation that can take years is necessary – to try to uncover who actually runs and profits from the nursing home’s business.  I represent the family of a woman who died in a North Carolina nursing home in 2003 and, after years of work on the case,  I have just recently  succeeded in amending the lawsuit to reach the persons we believe are responsible.   Click on link to see Order amending complaint and to see proposed legislation.
62F ORDER 2nd Motion to Amend Complaint 09.11.09

Britthaven, Inc. operates over 50 nursing homes — almost all of them are in North Carolina. Its Jacksonville facility is currently under investigation by the State.  See attached story.

http://www.jdnews.com/news/state-68641-agency-investigation.html

An arbitration panel awarded over 2 million dollars on behalf of an elderly woman residing in a Mariner nursing home in Tennessee. The plaintiff successfully contended that the legal entities were each other’s alter egos.

The elderly woman developed pressure sores and languished in her own wastes for lengthy periods of time because there was not enough staff to take care of her.  See the story.

More ideas on tort reform. How about making hospitals disclose their errors harming patients?  Its called accountability.  In Pennsylvania, state hospitals are required to disclose patient outcomes and guess what?  That state has learned that disclosure helps improve care, and that good care is actually cheaper than bad care. How about reforming North Carolina law so that hospitals have to disclose their outcomes?  See the article from the Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125478721514066137.html?mod=djemHL

More on tort reform.  The New England Journal of Medicine has come out with a refreshing article – suggesting that under certain circumstances health care providers, including doctors, should be held accountable for their mistakes.  See the link.  In these times, when most persons injured by medical neglect are not compensated for their injuries,  it was heartening to see a physician write that, like the rest of us, health care providers should be held accountable for their errors – even though the author limited the circumstances to egregious errors, at least it’s a start. 

NEJM 10.01.09 Doctors’ Accountability

How about a little hypocrisy.  For weeks now, we have  been hearing about how tort reform is needed to prevent doctors from having to practice what they call “defensive medicine,” performing unnecessary and expensive tests that drive up the cost of care.  But lookee here, folks — when the Senate has tried to add financial disincentives to the practice of defensive medicine by reducing reimbursements for unnecessary and excessive tests, who has cried foul?  None other than the powerful medical lobbies that want to order and be paid for those excessive and unnecessary tests they become wealthy by ordering.  Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article.

During my years of suing nursing home operators for patient neglect and abuse, I’ve learned to follow the money:  When I have followed the money, I’ve learned that too much of it goes in owners’

pockets and too little of it is spent on patient care and care provider salaries.  I’ve also learned that owners set up webs of companies they control and use them as the mechanism for moving the money from tax payer dollars to the owners’ pockets.  As a result, patients are needlessly harmed.  I like the Health Care Overhaul Bill’s recent amendment aimed at limiting insurance company executive’s salaries to a mere $500,000.00 a year.  Lets put a similar cap on the earnings of nursing home owners and operators, and we will begin to see great improvements in the quality of life of nursing home residents and the underpaid, overworked providers that take care of them. See Wall Street Journal article on capping insurance executive salaries by clicking on the link.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125441528702956751.html?mod=djemHL