Nursing Home Defense: Countering the Noncompliance Narrative, Proving Unavoidability, Diffusing Emotional Evidence

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Personal Injury and Med Mal
- event Date
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE course will review nursing home litigation defense strategies to counter the plaintiff's theories for frequently alleged injuries, such as pressure sores, falls, malnourishment, medication errors, neglect, or infection. The program will help counsel anticipate and curb plaintiffs' discovery and deposition strategies, mount defenses to liability, and navigate the plaintiff's attacks on unavoidability, comorbidities, third-party fault, and failure to thrive. The program will also address when and how to invoke the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act.
Faculty

Ms. Valentino is a member of the firm’s Long-Term Care and Elder Law, Healthcare, and Medical Malpractice Practices. She has engaged in numerous arbitrations and mediations and successfully tried to verdict multiple medical malpractice cases on behalf of physicians, nurses and hospitals, long-term care facilities and its employees. Ms. Valentino is the past President of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois.

Mr. Conley has significant experience in litigation in a variety of areas with an emphasis in health care litigation involving hospitals, long-term care facilities, physicians, nurses and other health care providers. He also is experienced in health care regulatory matters, including issues involving federal and state regulations and licensing, survey and certification.

Ms. Connors concentrates her practice in the representation of health care providers and facilities and has also defended claims of product liability. She has been in practice since 1992. Attorney Connors is a highly regarded trial attorney, having successfully defended high exposure medical malpractice claims on behalf of physicians and care providers, acute care hospitals, long-term rehabilitation hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies. The cases her clients have entrusted to her to defend have involved nearly every specialty of medicine and a wide variety of issues. The cases Ms. Connors has defended have included catastrophic injuries and death. She has long had a busy trial practice, including one malpractice case where evidence was conducted over the course of ten weeks. Further, Ms. Connors has successfully handled the appeals of those matters following jury verdicts in favor of her clients.
Description
Litigation is inevitable for almost all long-term care facilities. Defense counsel must anticipate plaintiff strategies that often revolve around nursing homes and medical professionals' noncompliance with complex and elaborate regulations, internal procedures, or best practices.
Defense counsel must prepare to address broad discovery requests and deposition notices as plaintiffs seek gaps or inconsistencies in medical records, care plans, and nurses' notes. A facility's best defense may be a strong documentary record.
Nursing home counsel should understand the PREP Act and other defenses for cases related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Listen as our authoritative panel of practitioners provides an overview of nursing home laws and regulations, discusses common types of injuries, and covers how to handle medical records and other discovery issues unique to these cases.
Outline
- Relevant laws, regulations, surveys
- Pleading and affidavit requirements
- Common types of injuries
- Common defenses and plaintiff strategies
- Demonstrating compliance with regulations
- Unavoidability
- Comorbidities
- Third-party fault
- The role of survey data
- Independent actor vs. enterprise negligence
- PREP Act
Benefits
The panel will review these and other crucial issues:
- Can a case be won or lost at a deposition?
- Are the burdens of proof different under some statutory schemes than regular negligence?
- How does counsel show the defendants provided all reasonable care?
- What is the effect of state laws and the PREP Act on defense strategies?
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