Most states require that a plaintiff obtain and/or file an expert affidavit when filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. This helps to keep nonmeritorious cases from clogging and draining the legal system. While these affidavits do not always have to be signed by a physician, many are.
As much as I love my iPhone®, the autocorrect feature needs improvement. You know what I mean. It changes words we’re typing into words we don’t mean to type. Just the other day I received a text from a good friend that said “Phuket.” Now, you and I know that Phuket is a beach resort in Thailand. But what Siri, Steve Jobs and the Apple Nation doesn’t get is how or why that got into a regular text instead of the word “okay.”
Attorneys must have experts to litigate their cases. While only 5% or less of medical-related cases ever go to trial, attorneys will rarely settle a significant case until the opposing side has put its experts on the table. This is why locating experts is one of the most lucrative CLNC® services a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant can provide to attorneys.
People often ask why I don’t share my political viewpoints when speaking or on social media. My response, “Politics can bring out the worst in a person. Why do I want to alienate 50% of my audience out of the gate?”
About this time of year Certified Legal Nurse Consultants’ thoughts turn to the purchase of a new computer. Perhaps you feel it’s time to upgrade from your old desktop that takes 45 minutes to boot up in the morning to one of the sleek All-In-One computers. You might be a road warrior who’s tired of hauling an old 70 lb. laptop and are craving a new SSD Ultrabook. Or maybe you’re counter-PC-culture and have an older Mac computer but want to upgrade to a sleek, thin MacBook Air laptop.
Wired magazine has coined the term “distracted doctoring” to describe physicians who use laptops, smartphones and tablets during surgery. While we all know that the use of devices is not isolated to the OR department, it is still shocking to imagine that this is happening, especially in a so-called sterile environment.
I attended a business function for one of our vendors and the dress code was “business casual,” a variable term here in Houston. The owner of the company who was sponsoring the event was there with his wife – both dressed in “Neiman’s casual.” Several employees of the company were also there, dressed in “Nordstrom’s casual.” About the middle of the evening, the son of the owner, who also works for the company and will probably one day own it, turned up in “college casual.” You can guess what that looked like.
Certified Legal Nurse Consultants know the utility of searching MEDLINE and other wonderful National Library of Medicine (NLM) databases when doing research for your legal nurse consulting work product. In case you’ve gotten rusty, this week’s Tuesday Tech Tip is a quick review on searching MEDLINE versus PubMed.
Congratulations to Shari Diorio, RN, BSN, CLNC who received her first cases at the CLNC® 6-Day Certification Seminar in Las Vegas. Watch Shari tell her story of how she received cases from two different attorneys, the first literally just before the CLNC® Certification Exam started and the second just after, while she was at the reception!
Statistically, high-strength painkillers are the most widely prescribed class of drugs in the U.S. This is a class of drugs that, just 15 short years ago, was mostly used for post-operative pain and pain associated with cancer. Today they’re widely used to treat just about every type of pain, with chilling consequences. Patients develop tolerance to the opioids, requiring increasingly higher dosages just to maintain the same level of pain control. Use of painkillers can turn into an addiction, with accompanying symptoms of withdrawal should a patient try and taper off.
*The opinions and statements made by Vickie Milazzo, the founder of Medical-Legal Consulting Institute, Inc. are based on her experiences and expertise, should not be applied beyond the specific context provided, and do not guaranty or project actual results. Vickie Milazzo is no longer involved in the operations or management of the business, but is involved as an independent education consultant.
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