Archive for August, 2009

Nurses Make Mistakes Too

While it is more common to hear of medical malpractice as it relates to doctors, nurses may also be guilty of it.

Nurses don’t go to work thinking about negligently performing their jobs. They arrive ready to do their shift and perhaps at some point during those 12 hours unintentionally commit a negligent act that results in injury or death to an unsuspecting patient. Sadly, it appears that nurse malpractice is on the rise thanks to the conditions in many hospitals today – overcrowding, understaffing, unrealistic deadlines, a steady stream of emergencies, and other factors that overwhelm even the best intentioned RN.

An overworked, overwhelmed RN makes mistakes; it’s just that simple. The results of those mistakes often mean a Cleveland malpractice lawyer is seeking compensation from the courts for damages a victim has suffered, including emotional, financial and physical.

The solution to nursing malpractice would seem to be more nurses. As simple as that may sound, it appears to be a difficult goal to achieve. While nurses are in high demand, there is a chronic shortage of registered and licensed nurses. That means that those working on the front lines are often tapped to work more and more overtime. The cumulative total of hours worked often leads to burn out and nursing errors. Many a Cleveland medical malpractice lawsuit has made mention of the nursing shortage at hospitals.

Statistically speaking if a nurse is working over 12.5 hours, they are three times more likely to make mistakes while on duty. In response to the, it’s no real surprise there is poor communication, carelessness and miscommunication. Many of these factors become part and parcel of a nursing lawsuit filed by a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer.

Nursing errors may run the gamut from medication errors (wrong dose or wrong patient), not doing what a doctor instructed, not responding to a patient’s needs in a timely fashion, or going ahead and doing a procedure they are not properly trained to handle. While many of these mistakes may be explained by being overworked and stressed, the consequences of this inattention and negligence may result in a drug overdose, coma, infection, organ damage, an adverse drug reaction or death.

Patients who have survived what they feel was nursing malpractice should seek the expert legal counsel of a Cleveland medical malpractice attorney to discuss recovering damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, loss of wages or the ability to work, loss of support (involving a death), etc.

To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

Health Insurance Quotes by Big Name Companies Might Not Be the Best

The big name online companies might not always be the best option for you to get health insurance quotes, because they don’t always have the same kind of plan flexibility as a smaller company does. Brand name companies, like brand name drugs, don’t always do what you think they will. Ask smaller companies to provide you with affordable health insurance quotes while also taking time for a free consultation with the insurance broker. You will be pleasantly surprised and find something cost effective at the same time.

Good health insurance quotes are worth their weight in gold, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy it from a big name online company. Shop around, be honest with the agents you talk to and then listen closely to the various options you have. Smaller companies can provide you with much more flexibility in terms of health insurance quotes.

To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.

It’s a Matter of Being Right

When it comes to taking medications or giving medications, it’s a matter of being right in order to avoid potentially disastrous consequences that would lead to a medical malpractice lawsuit.

It really shouldn’t be asking too much to get the right medications when a patient is in a hospital or other clinical setting where medical treatment is being carried out. After all, that would be a reasonable expectation of the patient. Patients rely on caregivers to look out for them and not harm them by giving them something that either produces a bad reaction or ends up causing the patient’s death. Unfortunately, medication errors are far too common and in order to avoid them, health care professionals must take steps to monitor their actions or face a potential Cleveland medical malpractice lawsuit.

Generally speaking there are at least five things, or five rights that patients should expect from medical personnel. The first thing is that the patient is correctly identified. While this may sound like a fairly straightforward job, those who perform it typically also answer phones, screen calls, take refill information, sign in co-pays and other miscellaneous distracting duties. If this causes negligence on the part of the medical intake person, they may face a Cleveland medical malpractice suit.

Consider the ramifications if the patient is initially not identified properly. This could mean the wrong treatment, wrong surgery, wrong diagnosis or a multitude of other errors all compounded by the patient being given the wrong name, charts and other vital medical information. This admittedly is more of a problem on admission to the hospital if the patient is not able to communicate articulately.

A patient’s second well deserved right is that they get the correct drug. Unfortunately this is a real concern in many health care settings, as drugs are often prescribed, handed out and given to patients without any information about their potential allergies, their age, height, weight, lab results, actual clinical condition or diagnosis. This is a recipe for disaster.

Add to this physicians who write faster than they think and hand out prescriptions that defy all logic with creative names for drugs they can’t recall and doses that are, at best, questionable. Unfortunately, there isn’t always a check and balance system in place to keep track of what patient gets what drugs when everyone is under the gun to care for more patients than there are beds. The possibility of negligence in a hospital or other clinical setting may be very high given the overburdened health system, something a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer knows well.

Right number three deals with getting the right dose of a medication. This is a particularly difficult area, as trying to set the right dose for the patient is mostly done by an educated guess based on age, height, weight, what other drugs the person is taking and any known allergies. The art of different dosing for each patient is not one that everyone in health care settings understands well enough. Consider the case of a nurse crushing a time release capsule for a senior and finding out later crushing the tablet releases the whole dose at once with dreadful consequences.

Along with the right dose of medication comes patient right number four, the right route to administer the medication. In most instances, giving a pill or liquid is the easiest, safest and most cost effective route. However, there are other methods of administration such as intravenous, intradermal, subcutaneous and intramuscular that have the potential to go off the rails if done incorrectly. Other even more tricky methods of giving a drug include intracardiac, intrapleural, intraspinal, intraarticular and intrathecal. These are particularly dangerous routes of administration of a drug, as once the drug is injected there is no way to get it back.

Patient right number five relates to getting the right medication at the right time. If the required dose is delayed or forgotten, this becomes a medication error with the potential to cause significant problems such as making up doses and giving them too close together.

For a violation of patient’s rights, it is critical to speak with a Cleveland medical malpractice attorney to ensure justice is served.

To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

Gray Water - Alternative for Home Use

What role does gray water play in today’s efforts to manage our dwindling water resources?

So much of the water used at home is left to flow into the drain when it could be used for other things like watering the garden or the lawn, or maybe even washing your car. This “gray water” runoff is usually what’s left over after you have a bath, wash the dishes and wash clothes. Whether you know it or not, that kind of “secondary” water use in the home generates 40 gallons of water a day for each person in the house. Just imagine how much more economical a homeowner would be is they re-used the gray water. Translation: lower water bills.

The interesting thing is that if homeowners did choose to recycle their gray water, they could cut water use by at least 25 percent, and that’s not so shabby. For states that are struggling to maintain and responsibly manage their water supplies, this would be a major boon. It’s been estimated that 36 states will be facing water shortages by 2013.

They might even be able to keep up with the demand if people recycled gray water. Arizona and New Mexico go for this practice in a big way, as do a few other states. However, some states find the requirements to be way too complex to be able to implement.

Oregon’s most recent innovative attempt to expand the definition of gray water shows they are on the right track to utilize this water and make a significant difference to their state water resources. Their definition rules out using water contaminated by toxins or human waste, so they’d be nixing toilets and washing machines where the homeowner washes cloth diapers. Obviously, gray water isn’t intended for drinking, but it does have a place in the greater scheme of the world of recycling as it is still safe and useable water for other things.

While using gray water is relatively safe for some things, this raises the question about tap water in American homes. Is it safe to drink? The answer to that question is, “No.” There are so many contaminants in the water no one would be able to name them all. They range from herbicides and pesticides to legal prescription drugs and illegal street drugs, not to mention chemicals we dump in the water to make it “safe.” Dumping Chloramines and/or straight chlorine into the water to kill the bad gunk just means the “other bad gunk” being killed is replaced by chlorine, which is just as bad. This is the point when you need to consider water distillers and water distillation systems for the home.

Just lately scientists have figured out what long-term exposure to chlorine means and it isn’t encouraging. Chlorine is touted as a “necessary” thing to keep our water drinkable. The real truth is that chlorine and chlorine by-products cause cell damage in our bodies as well as heart problems.

The only way to ensure you have fresh, clean and the purest possible drinking water in your home is to invest in water distillers and your own home water distillation systems.

Larry Wardell is with H2olabs.com, a provider of water distillers and water distillation systems. To learn more about Water distillers, water distillation systems, water purification systems, visit H2olabs.com.

Health Insurance Quotes Suited to You

Here’s where your local health insurance agent comes into play. Call them — they’re there to provide you with health insurance quotes tailor-made for your circumstances, not everyone else’s. The advice is free and will save you a ton of money while you get what you really need in terms of affordable health insurance.

Tell the health insurance agent precisely what you are looking for based on what you need for you and/or your family. Tell them all the circumstances, such as pre-existing conditions, whether or not you have children or may be planning on more children, or whether you are managing a condition with a certain drug and can offer proof.

All the information you give the agent is confidential and will help them to provide you with a plan that works. There are thousands of options out there and you can’t read about all of them online. That’s what health insurance agents are for, to make choosing an affordable health insurance a whole lot easier.

To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.

The Department of Homeland Security, the Money Pit

The House distinguished itself in a not so good way just recently when it managed to pass several counterproductive immigration reform amendments.

The problem most of the members of the House have with the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) and their enforcement issues is why vote against those measures now when they may vote for comprehensive immigration reform later, which would include similar enforcement issues. That being said, someone should likely have kept a tab on which bills conflicted with others before passing them for the whole world to see.
At issue isn’t the fact that people don’t want an immigration system that actually works and restores some sanity to the legal side of the system. The problem is that in order for the changes to work there needs to be a comprehensive and rational immigration system that is able to effectively address America’s social interests, security and economic concerns.

In a nutshell what passed in the House recently just serves to point out that if the politicians don’t get their act together soon, their “amendments” will only make the system even more dysfunctional, costly and difficult; an appalling thought.

The first amendment was to make the E-Verify program, which is now voluntary, mandatory for all federal contractors. On the surface this sounds like not a bad thing to do. Run a new hire through the system and find out if they are legal. The problem is that the system isn’t ready to be let loose. Its databases aren’t accurate and it’s being misused by employers, resulting in lawful workers being denied employment. Then, there’s the horrendous cost of $22 billion to implement over a 10 year period.

Bright amendment number two was to mandate completion of hundreds of miles of border fence. This might be fine in theory, but physically it’s impossible and out of reach financially. The DHS wants virtual fencing instead and opposed this mandate. That’s a good news/bad news scenario, because either way, a border fence of some type will go up and it will either cost millions or billions and do a number on human rights.
Questionable amendment number three was the one that wanted to ban DHS from using funds to alter its social security no-match regulation. This came about because DHS wanted to use the SS no-match regulation as an enforcement tool. This would cost roughly $10 billion and cause the termination of approximately 165,000 lawful immigrants and U.S. citizen workers.

The icing on the cake amendment was authorizing employers to use E-Verify to verify their current workforce. Right now the idea is that it is to be used to only verify new hires. This proposed change would have employer’s demanding current employees cough up photo ID or be fired. Roughly 21 million U.S. citizens don’t have government issued photo ID.

To say that the recent developments in immigration reform amendments coming from the House are counterproductive and counterintuitive would be an understatement. The real burning question is how this will all ultimately come together, or will it?

To learn more about immigration lawyer in miami, immigration lawyer in orlando, immigration lawyer in florida, visit Rifkinandfoxisicoff.com.

TBI Healing Hope

The face of hope for treatment for traumatic brain injury just got a bit brighter with the introduction of something called Oxycyte. This is a major breakthrough, as there is currently no effective medical treatment.

Traumatic brain injury is a real concern in Cleveland medical malpractice circles when someone has been in an accident. Whether that injury has been the result of a car crash, a slip and fall accident or other blunt force trauma to the skull (such as blasts from explosives), the consequences are life altering, if not deadly when not treated in a timely manner. Cleveland medical malpractice lawyers see instances like this quite frequently.

There are roughly 1.4 million cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the U.S. every year. Approximately 300,000 of those cases are classified as severe. The fact of the matter is that TBI is the number one cause of disability for those under age 35. This injury results in close to 99,000 cases a year of permanent disability. Fifty percent of those who survive a TBI sustain major impairment. These statistics alone speak loudly enough about the severity of this injury to prompt victims to hire a highly skilled Cleveland malpractice lawyer.

Lest we forget, there are hundreds of cases of military blast injury sustained by our Armed Forces personnel overseas, as a result of roadside bombs. There were approximately 360,000 military blast injuries 2002-2008. Those numbers have not decreased over the last two years. While we may be waging a war against terrorists, the real terror is stalking military personnel in the form of blast injuries. The incidence of deaths due to TBI from bomb blasts is also very high.

In most instances traumatic brain injury is “managed” in order to reduce the pressure on the brain from swelling and to ensure it is receiving enough oxygen. Any breakthrough in the medical field that offers promise for those who have sustained a traumatic brain injury is welcome news. Indeed, most Cleveland medical malpractice attorneys feel new therapy like this may assist their clients in recovery. While the proposed therapy and drug are pending trials in Israel and Switzerland, Oxycyte’s initial results appear to be promising.

This company focuses on pharmaceuticals and medical devices in the field of oxygen therapeutics and continuous substrate monitoring. Their latest offering to the medical community is Oxycyte, a perfluorocarbon therapeutic oxygen carrier and liquid ventilation product and an implantable glucose sensor.

Currently there are six treatment sites planned for each country with clinical trials slated to begin in the second quarter of 2009 and tentatively lasting anywhere from 12 to 18 months. There are many test subjects available, as the Israelis have been dealing with TBI and blast victims for quite some time. Their skill will enable them to utilize this promising therapy and provide clinical test results based on the therapy regime of a single infusion of one of 3 incremental doses of Oxycyte given within 12 hours of injury along with 50% oxygen and the usual care in cases like this.

The hope is that Oxycyte will play a crucial role in assisting in cases dealing with traumatic brain injury, wound care, strokes, heart attacks, surgery, etc.

From the point of view of a Cleveland medical malpractice attorney who deals with TBI as the result of someone else’s negligence, this latest medical news may change the outcome for TBI patients, and that could only be good.

Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.

Even the Government Knows About Contaminated Water

Most, if not all, of the water we drink is contaminated in some form or another. It’s a “for sure” that the government knows and a certainty that we need water distillers in our homes to combat contamination.
Consider the various legal battles raging all across the nation dealing with contaminated water and you will get a very clear picture of the likely condition of the water in your taps. If you aren’t using water distillation systems in your home, then think twice about drinking the water.

The most recent debacle concerns E. coli in Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks. An investigation is being conducted that a government agency broke state laws by not releasing data that E. coli was above safe levels in the lake – a revelation that would make most people bolt to the Internet and purchase water purification systems for the home and cottage.

The Missouri Attorney General is investigating a complaint that a state agency violated state law by refusing to release data that showed E. coli was above safe levels in the Lake of the Ozarks. That gives one pause for thought about how that would affect tourists, not to mention the local citizenry. Evidently the Department of Natural Resources turned down multiple requests under that state’s Sunshine Act to release the relevant data. Water distillers would be in big demand with the community facing that kind of a problem.

The Department’s director is walking a rather fine line these days indicating that his department should have immediately released the report detailing the levels of E. coli in the lake. This in light of the fact that the department had apparently kept the report hush-hush for about a month because they didn’t want to affect tourism or cause public panic. The concern and panic happened anyway when people found out. The situation was merely compounded by the Department of Natural Resources hiding the facts. The lost time for people to purchase water distillers for their home and at the lake was crucial.

If the government in various states is withholding information of this nature because it doesn’t want to lose tourism dollars or cause people to get into a flap, what other information about the water haven’t they told us? Interesting question, don’t you think? The public has every right to know about the water in or from which they wash, bathe, play and drink.

Our health is at risk when we drink contaminated water and when public agencies, who are supposed to safeguard us from things like this, participate in a cover-up like the Missouri one. It’s time to be taking a hard look at the water system you have in your home for your family and finding out all you need to know about water purification systems. Water distillers are the best bet for the freshest, cleanest water like Mother Nature intended it to be.

Larry Wardell is with H2olabs.com, a provider of water distillers and water distillation systems. To learn more about Water distillers, water distillation systems, water purification systems, visit H2olabs.com.

Health Insurance Quotes Can Be Reasonable

There actually is such a thing as reasonable health insurance quotes. You just have to know how to search for them. It’s simple, actually, and doesn’t take that much time.

Remember when searching for health insurance quotes the bigger companies are not always the best choice. They do have other carriers, but you don’t get side-by-side comparisons of one plan to another, not like you do when you ask Benepath for a quote. You want a site that gives you the ability to see what others offer at the same time.

Don’t base your search for affordable health insurance on price. In other words don’t go the cheapest option because you will be giving up benefits you may need in the future.

To learn more about Health insurance quotes, affordable health insurance, affordable health insurance quotes, health insurance plans, visit Benepath.com.

Texas Employment Complex

There are numerous forms of illegal discrimination recognized under Texas employment law.
Not a lot of people are aware of the many forms of illegal discrimination relating to employment law in Texas. Those forms include refusing to hire or promote an individual because of some protected characteristics. The second form is firing that person for those characteristics, otherwise called wrongful termination.

What this boils down to is it’s illegal to discriminate against someone because of their age, race, sex, religion, national origin or because they have a disability. There are a number of other forms of discrimination recognized by Texas courts.

Interestingly, even though Texas state law does not specifically list sexual orientation as an illegal reason to fire a person or decline to hire them, it may be improper under certain circumstances to ask about an applicant’s sexual orientation or ask about their family life. On the other hand there are many personal traits and characteristics that are not protected.

An employer has every right to not hire a person with a criminal record and may also terminate a worker they discover with a record. This should not be confused with being “accused” of a crime. The mere accusation does not make the person guilty, which brings up another point you should know about – it being illegal to ask about arrests or accusations during the initial job interview. They only thing they may ask about are convictions.

Potential employers are also permitted to ask whether or not you need special equipment or accommodations to do your job – for instance a larger screen to see text because your eyesight isn’t very good, or an extra space at a desk for a wheelchair. If your need is not “reasonable,” it may not be discrimination if you are turned down for the position.

In Texas, like most states, workers are considered to be employed “at will.” In other words, the employee can end the employment relationship at any time without prior notice. On the other hand, in most instances, the employer can terminate the employee at any time without notice as long as the reason for termination is not an “illegal reason.”

As with most things pertaining to the law, there are numerous exceptions to the at will employment relationship. One exception is where the employee and employer sign an employment contract that limits either party’s ability to end the employment relationship. For example, the contract might provide a specific time period of employment or that the individual may only be let go for certain reasons.

The important thing about contracts is that the words that are chosen matter and many employment contracts are written differently. That means in order to understand what your rights are under an employment contract, you must be able to understand the legal meaning of the provisions it contains. The best way to do that is to take your contract to a qualified lawyer who can read and understand what it means.

Seth Wilburn writes for the Gomez Law Group, a Dallas employment lawyer and Dallas business lawyer. To learn more, visit Gomezlawyers.com.