Articles

TASA ID: 15395

In the early beginnings of compliance plans for healthcare businesses, big and small, there was a strong suggestion that all healthcare businesses, practices, hospitals and the like adopt a compliance program but there was no directive as to ensuring that the plan actually worked or was comprehensive enough to ensure the mitigation of potential issues, False Claims Act matters, kickbacks, and the like.   The important part of this in approximately 1998 was to have a plan in place, put it on a shelf and if anyone asked to review it, most practices that did implement a plan would pull it off that shelf, dust it off and provide it to the requester. 

TASA ID: 3656

Optimal medical care after a patient has abdominal surgery should involve general surgery.  As an Internal Medicine expert, I was recently asked to review a case involving a bad outcome caused by poor post-operative care after urologic surgery, where care was rendered only by the urology team and medical hospitalist. 

This patient was a 60-year-old woman who’s only prior medical condition was recurrent kidney stones.  Her urologist had performed several outpatient procedures to remove kidney stones from her ureter that required placement and removal of stents.  Due to scarring in her ureter, he then opted to do Robotic ureteral re-implant surgery, which involved removing a piece of her scarred ureter and reconnecting her remaining ureter back into her bladder.

TASA ID:

Elder abuse is a growing problem in the United States. And sadly, the problem is likely to continue to increase as the American population ages. This article explores what elder abuse is and then provides resources that a concerned individual can access to help someone who is potentially experiencing elder abuse. 

TASA ID: 16893

Surgical errors happen every day, and lead to numerous types of medical malpractice cases. Most surgical errors are simple things that could have been prevented if all of the members of the operating room team were on the “same page”. Communication in a hectic room with multiple things going on at the same time can often be the root of surgical errors that lead to patient injury.

That is why the Joint Commission for Accreditation on Healthcare Organizations (JACHO) implemented a multi-step practice called “the universal protocol” back in 2003 that is the standard for surgery today. The goal is to perform the right surgery on right site and on the right patient. This requires the surgical team to start implementing this standard from the pre-operative area, then onto surgery.

TASA ID: 864

When working for the defense as an expert witness, I have developed a strategy for dealing with wrongful death and personal injury issues.  Most of my work relates to matters involving health and human service programs. In these cases, Standard of Care and the organization's operational flaws usually play a significant role.