On Tuesday, the Wisconsin State Senate passed new tort reform measures that have opponents (patients, patient advocates, medical malpractice lawyers, consumer advocacy groups) “up in arms.” The bill, which is now headed to the Assembly, could severely limit liability to medical providers who commit medical malpractice in hospitals and nursing homes.
Tort Reform Hurts Patients
The business community is thrilled by the bill the Senate passed this week. Of course they are; the new measures make it harder to get sued! Patient advocates, however, view the bill as a shield for medical providers who injure or abuse in nursing homes, or who practice careless, dangerous, and sub-standard medicine.
Provisions of the bill include:
- Limiting non-economic damages. These damages include payment for loss of companionship, mental distress, or pain and suffering, among others. Payment would max at $750,000 for medical malpractice cases in nursing homes. The $750,000 cap is already in place for medical malpractice cases in hospitals or private practices.
- Limiting punitive (punishment) damages. Punitive damages would be reduced to $200,000, or twice the amount of compensatory damages – whichever is higher.
- Raising the criteria for winning punitive damages. With the passage of the bill, plaintiffs will have to prove that the accused acted with “intent to cause injury to a particular person,” or with the knowledge that their actions would lead to an injury.
- Preventing the admission of certain reports as evidence. Reports from state regulators, or statements from employees of a health care provider, would no longer be admissable as evidence in civil or criminal cases.
- Changing Expert Standards Qualifications for those who can provide expert testimony would be raised.
The bill’s provisions could do a lot of harm to a patient’s right to compensation for serious injuries caused by medical malpractice or nursing home abuse.
Medical Malpractice Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
Tort reform supporters who boast it’s economic benefits don’t tell you that those benefits only speak to large corporations and insurance companies who proft from the limited liability that tort reform precipitates. Innocent people, like you and I, who have been seriousley and permanently injured by a negligent or careless doctor, hospital, or nursing home see no benefits at all from capped damages and limited liability.
If you or your loved one has suffered medical malpractice at the hands of a negligent medical provider, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation. You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia. Let the medical malpractice lawyers at the Mininno Law Office earn you the compensation you need and rightly deserve.
As New Jersey nursing home abuse lawyers, we encourage family members to work with the nursing home staff to make sure all nutritional aspects of the nursing home patient’s diet are examined. This is especially important to prevent these deadly bedsores and pressure ulcers. As the nursing home patient is often unable to get all of his/her nutrition from food alone, multivitamins and minerals may be needed to ensure the proper nourishment. This should be determined by the staff and made available to the nursing home patient. Research has shown that seniors need a variety of multivitamins and minerals to stay healthy, such as Vitamins, E, K, D and C for example. Proper vitamin supplementation should be assessed and determined by the nursing home staff, and then provided to the nursing home patient as part of their daily nutritional plan. 
Most DePuy hip recall patients have had a single DePuy hip replacement. However, many times, an orthopaedic patient will require both hips to be replaced in a surgery called a bilateral hip replacement surgery. Unfortunately, for those patients who have had a bilateral hip-replacement surgery with the recalled DePuy hip implant, the recall is twice as troubling because these patients will require more extensive surgery to remove the two DePuy hips. 
Galecio and Maria Rodriguez sued Dr. Jennifer Friedman and the Northwestern Memorial Physician’s Group after a serious birth injury permanently injured their son Mateo.
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The sixth tip nursing home abuse lawyers offer in preventing bedsores and pressure ulcers is to make sure a nursing home patient has proper nutrition. Many nursing home patients do not get proper nutrition because nursing home staff may be poorly trained, over-worked, or may not fully understand how closely nutrition is related to bedsore and pressure ulcers. Although nursing home staff are required by law to know the many ways to prevent a bedsore or a pressure ulcer, many nursing home staff do not get this training or education from the nursing home. This is not acceptable and is just another form of nursing home patient neglect. Nursing home staff must know the reasons for malnutrition. For example, patients may have difficulty feeding themselves, do not enjoy meals, or are taking medications which upset their stomachs. These patients need specific nutrition assessments to ensure that a bedsore or pressure ulcer will not form. 
One of the questions patients have asked is, “What is the defect that is causing these implants to fail?” Not surprisingly, DePuy Orthopaedics is not telling its DePuy hip implant patients anything of substance regarding why these DePuy hip implants are failing and why they have issued this hip recall. But, DePuy won’t be able to keep its secrets for long. Ultimately, because of the lawsuits, DePuy representatives will have to testify, under oath, about the hip recall. Then, DePuy hip implant patients will finally learn the truth. 
Malyia’s condition persistently worsened during the near 5 hours that she and her parents waited to be seen by a doctor. Finally, Ryan Jeffers bypassed the nurses station and pushed through the doors behind them. He approached a different nurse and asked her
#2: Avoid High Traffic Periods. It seems that because patients try to avoid spending their whole weekend in the ER, Monday is the busiest emergency room day. If you start noticing symptoms on Saturday, don’t wait until Monday to see a doctor. The delay could end up causing much harm.
The fifth tip nursing home abuse lawyers offer in preventing bedsores is to establish a bowel or bladder program for any nursing home patient who may have incontinence. Many patients are incontinent or have other bowel or bladder issues. When a patient is admitted into the nursing home, the staff should assess whether or not the patient has a bowel or bladder problem and design a plan to minimize any potential risk this may pose in developing a pressure ulcer or bedsore. These residents should be on a regular toileting schedule to ensure that those needs are being met on a regular basis.