For a number of years, attorneys for patients have observed what appears to be a disturbing pattern of jury verdicts in favor of physicians who have committed clear malpractice and seriously injured patients.  We attorneys who represent patients whose lives have been damaged or even ended because of poor medical care, have been saddened by this trend which appears to stem from a successful media attack on malpractice lawsuits by the insurance industry and for profit corporations running medical institutions.  Recent studies show that between 44,000 and 88,000 citizens die each year because of medical errors in  US hospitals alone.  Yet, fewer malpractice suits have been filed, and fewer won, even where the physician’s liability is obvious — so that patients and their families are often left disabled, unemployed, and penniless through no fault of their own as a result of medical errors.  See attached article documenting this trend and its tragic impact on public health.

“In a front page story on Christmas Eve in the Raleigh News & Observer titled: Nursing-Home Records Closed Off; Bush Administration Changes are Sharply Criticized by Patient Advocates” attention was brought to recent changes in federal rules that prevent or severely hinder access to patient information.”

 Click HERE to read the entire News & Observer article, including statements by HensonFuerst’s Anne Duvoisin

From Anne Duvoisin, Attorney/Partner, HensonFuerst Nursing Home

Practice: “45 CFR Part 2, “Testimony by Employees and the Production of Documents in Proceedings Where the United States Is Not a Party,” passed without comment by the Bush administration in its waning hours, will substantially and adversely impact nursing home residents and those that advocate on their behalf.  It is hoped that a new administration will undo this regulation, which will prevent lawyers from taking the depositions of surveyors and make access to surveyors’ notes very difficult if not impossible to achieve. Often, the only way what happens to a resident is discovered, is through state investigation.  Now, the results of those investigations will be much more difficult to obtain and may in many instances be unobtainable.”

Click HERE to read and review 45 CFR Part 2, “Testimony by Employees and the Production of Documents in Proceedings Where the United States Is Not a Party.”

From Anne Duvoisin, Attorney/Partner, HensonFuerst Nursing Home Practice: “The Nursing Home Transparency Act is now pending before Congress. Blog viewers are encouraged to review the full bill via the link below, and they are strongly encouraged to contact their Congressional delegates in the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives to urge this bill’s passage.”

Click HERE to read and review Senate Bill 2641, The Nursing Home Transparency Act.