Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

In a large number of nursing home cases, facilities raise a defense - usually through preliminary objections - that an agreement to arbitrate exists and as such, the Common Pleas Courts lack jurisdiction.  Nursing home arbitration agreements are normally found within the Nursing Home Care Admission Agreement however they can also be executed as separate agreements. 

Whichever type of agreement you come across, you should know that under no circumstance can an Arbitration Agreement be made a term of admission into the facility. 

Further, there are many compelling arguments that can be made that pre-dispute nursing home arbitration agreements are either wholly or partially unenforceable.  Some common arguments against nursing home arbitration agreements are as follows:

-          The individual nursing home resident did not have the capacity to enter into the agreement;

-          The family member or person admitting the resident did not have the authority to reach an agreement to enter into the nursing home arbitration agreement;

-          In wrongful death cases, the agreement to arbitrate does not apply to the separate wrongful death causes of action and that Pa.R.C.P. 213(e) does not allow separate wrongful death and survival actions arising out of the same conduct;

-          The agreement is unconscionable;

-          The agreement is invalid due to impossibility of performance.  This scenario occurs most often when an individual or agency is charged with handling the arbitration but no long handles pre-dispute arbitrations in health care cases.  Recently, many arbitration agencies have recently decided not to arbitrate pre-dispute arbitration agreements in healthcare cases.

It important to remember that although a nursing home arbitration agreement may not be enforceable, under certain circumstances, it may be beneficial to the injured party.  This requires an individual analysis of the nature of the particular case, venue and damages claimed.

If you or a loved one are a victim of nursing home neglect or abuse, call Brent Wieand for a free and confidential consultation. 

A City of Philadelphia police patrol car responding to a report of a shooting was struck by a maroon Camaro in the city's Nicetown-Hunting Park section about 4:30 p.m. Monday.

According to police, after the accident, the Camaro fled the scene and the patrol car pursued it several blocks to the intersection of Broad and Lycoming Streets, where it caused a motorcycle to swerve into a third car.

Two men jumped out of the Camaro and ran off. Police chased them but no arrests had been made as of Monday night. Police said the Camaro had been reported stolen. Investigators do not know whether the motorcyclist was injured in this accident

Source

A person's life can be turned upside down due to an unexpected car accident injury at any point no matter what factors contribute to the accident. Injured accident victims are often left with expenses for medical bills, vehicle damage, lost income, and other financial burdens that greatly hinder their ability to get their life back in order without assistance. Car accident lawyers can help injured victims take the steps necessary to establish liability in their case for obtaining a car accident settlement that adequately compensates them for losses or damages incurred as a result.  If you have been seriously injured due to an unexpected car accident, call me for a free and confidential consultation.

In nursing homes and assisted care facilities, accidental falls happen frequently to the elderly. However, falls can be prevented with properly trained staff, monitored care, proper risk assessment and a tailored care plan. Too often, an injury from a fall does not just mean a broken bone to an elderly patient, but can easily develop into further complications and a diminished quality of life.

In order to prevent resident falls, the following practices best practices in fall prevention should be implemented.

Fall risk assessment should be completed within 24 hours of admission, on change of condition or quarterly. It should address at a minimum

-gait and balance
-lower extremity strength
-Medication regiment
-Orthostatic blood pressure measurements
-Environmental issues

If a fall occurred, a post-fall investigation must be initiated within 24 hours that includes:

-Re-evaluation of gait and balance
-Re-evaluation of lower gait and balance
-Medication regiment and changes review
-Orthostatic blod pressure measurements
-Intrinsic/extrinsic risk factors that may have contributed to the fall

A care plan should be developed which includes measurable goals for fall risk management and injury. Planned interventions address individualized intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors identified during fall risk assessment. These interventions should be reviewed and updated based on the findings of the assessment, re-assessment and/or post fall investigations. Consideration should be given to dates of falls and causal factors. Further, individualized interventions should be re-evaluated and updated. Modifications should be made to prevent falls or minimize the risk of subsequent falls. It takes an interdisciplinary team to identify these interventions and prevent falls.

If you or a loved one has suffered a serious injury due to the neglectful care of a nursing home or assisted care facility, call Brent Wieand for a free, confidential consultation.  

A California bill regulating safety and performance standards for driverless cars has been signed into law.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill at Google's offices in Mountain View on Tuesday, clearing the way for the company's autonomous vehicles, around a dozen of which are already on the road in California, the Associated Press reports.

The law does not give the green light for Google to begin selling driverless cars. Instead, the law sets up rules and procedures for determining when the car is ready for consumers and what testing still needs to be done before the car is able to be used widely.

The cars use technologies, including radar sensors on the front, video cameras aimed at the surrounding area, various other sensors and artificial-intelligence software that helps steer. Google is the leading company working on these types of vehicles, however similar projects are under way at other organizations, such as Caltech. Google has already been testing the cars on the road in Nevada, which passed a law last year authorizing driverless vehicles. Both Nevada and California require the cars to have a human behind the wheel who can take control of the vehicle at any time. So far, the cars have have racked up more than 300,000 driving miles, and 50,000 of those miles were without any intervention from the human drivers.

There have been no accidents while the cars were controlled by the computer. The only documented accident with one of the Google vehicles was a fender bender that took place while a human was in control.

Ideally, driverless cars will reduce traffic by linking together with other self-driving vehicles and use highways more efficiently. As an additional benefit, drivers wouldn't be limited to listening to Howard Stern and honking during their morning commute; instead they could use that time to be productive.

The parties to a nursing home malpractice suit depends on several factors.  First, you must consider the nature of the injury and how it occurred.  If the injury was caused by a random act of violence by another resident and there was no reason to anticipate the act, there may be no other parties than the violent resident.  However, if there was reason to anticipate that the resident may act out in such a way, the list of potential defendants could greatly expand. 

Similar to medical malpractice, in most cases the parties will be the residents direct caretakers and their supervisors.  Parties which must usually be considered for suit include:

1. The owner;

2. The nursing home administrator;

3. The medical director;

5. The director of nursing; and

4. Nursing staff.

In the end, the identification of the parties will be determined by the nature of the injury, the investigation of the causes of injury, and the theory of liability, whether direct negligence or imputed negligence, or breach of contract.  The parties other than the plaintiff, will include individuals directly responsible for the injury, most likely nursing staff and possible the attending physician, those individuals responsible for supervising the activities of the staff which is directly responsible.  

An SUV crashed into a SEPTA Route 15 trolley on Girard Avenue at North Sixth Street early this morning, derailing the trolley.  The 32-year-old woman behind the wheel of the SUV was taken to Hahnemann University Hospital in serious condition following the 1:55 a.m. collision, officials said.  Police said she would be charged with driving under the influence.

Police are also reportedly looking for two men who jumped out of the SUV and ran away after the accident.  The trolley driver was treated for minor injuries, SEPTA said.

See Philly.com breaking news

Under Pennsylvania law, drunk driving is not an accident; it is a crime. Drunk driving causes thousands of injuries yearly and tragically, these injuries are wholly preventable. 

A personal injury caused by a drunk driver is often serious and causes a dramatic change in the life of the victim.  You may need compensation to make up for missed work or resulting unemployment, medical bills as well as your pain and suffering. Enlisting the help of an experienced Philadelphia personal injury attorney that is well-versed in negotiation with the insurance companies increases your likelihood of receiving maximum compensation.

Having the right personal injury attorney on your side can change the outcome of your case entirely.  If you or someone you know has suffered a personal injury due to a drunk driver in or around the greater Philadelphia area, contact Brent Wieand, Esq. for a free consultation   

There are almost two million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the United States.  Because of inadequate and poorly trained personnel, nursing home resident of these homes are often subject to negligent, abusive and rude behavior. 

Even when facing clear cut negligence and outrageous deviations from standard of care, the defendants in a nursing home malpractice case will prevail if it can be established that the negligence was not a substantial factor in causing harm.  This nursing home defense is particularly potent when the resident has numerous pre-existing and co-existing health issues.  It is the Plaintiff's burden to distinguish the harm and show that the breach of standard of care did cause the claimed harm despite preexisting conditions of the injured person. 

One tool which can be used to strengthen your argument on causation when dealing with co-existing health issues is the concept of clinical avoidability.  Clinical avoidability permeates the entirety of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA), also known as the Nursing Home Reform Act, and can be dispositive in a case succeeding.  The federal regulatory scheme analyzes causation not only upon the scientific particulars of the resident's medical condition but also by reviewing the facility's conduct and whether it has followed the mandates of resident care.  Thus, a negative outcome cannot be regarded as unavoidable if all appropriate measures were not taken to prevent it. 

Attorneys for victims of nursing home abuse should look to clinical practice guidelines and expert testimony of standards of care, as well as the OBRA regulations and interpretations of them by the Department of Health and Human Services for Medicare and Medicaid Services when developing a case for causation.  Skilled nursing facilities must comply with these regulations at all times.  As such, a litigant should establish compliance with the regulations as part of their case. 

If you or a loved one has been a victim of nursing home neglect or abuse, call attorney Brent Wieand for a free consultation at 267-443-8487.  

Coal is a profitable business for railroads, and according to the Association of American Railroads, it accounts for nearly a quarter of their revenue.  However, a string of train derailments has brought the safety of coal shipments into question.

Early Tuesday, a CSX coal train turned over on its side in Ellicott City, Md., near Baltimore.  Two college students were killed, and the accident closed roads and businesses.  Investigators looking into a deadly train derailment in Maryland were watching videos, studying track conditions and reviewing maintenance records, attempting to figure out what lead to the fatal train crash.

Last month, a Union Pacific coal train derailed on a highway overpass in Illinois, killing two people in a car on the road below.  Recent derailments of coal trains in Washington state and Texas resulted in no fatalities, but they added to the debate over transporting coal.

Unfortunately, train accidents are far more common than we would like to think.  According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, thousands are injured in railroad crossing accidents each year. Train crashes happen when cars and trucks stall or are left purposely on railroad tracks. Train accidents occur when their locomotive operators get distracted, or when equipment problems occur.  Other train crashes are caused by confusing signals at road crossing over rail lines.

When a train crash happens, the emotional and financial impact on victims is enormous.  The law offers recourse for those who were injured in train accidents, so that the parties at fault for the train wreck bear the costs of their actions rather than the innocent train passengers, employees and bystanders.

If you or a loved one has been seriously injured following a train wreck or other train accident, you may have a valid claim for your damages.  As with all accidents, it is important to contact an attorney without delay to investigate what parties are responsible for your injuries.  

Each year, one in every three adults age 65 and older falls. Falls can cause severe injuries, such as hip fractures and head traumas, and can increase the risk of early death.  In 2002, more than 12,800 people over age 65 died and 1.6 million were treated in emergency departments because of falls.  Fortunately, falls are a public health problem that is largely preventable. 

Falls are often due to hazards that are easy to overlook but easy to fix.  The following preventative measures may reduce their chances of falling:

• Exercise regularly.  It is important that the exercises focus on increasing leg strength and improving balance, and that they get more challenging over time.  Tai Chi and yoga programs are especially beneficial. 
• Keep an open conversation with their doctor and/or pharmacist to review medicines, both prescription and over-the counter, to identify whether their medicine may cause side effects or interactions such as dizziness or drowsiness. 
• Have their eyes checked by an eye doctor at least once a year and update their eyeglasses to maximize their vision. 
• Make their homes safer by reducing tripping hazards, adding grab bars inside and outside the tub or shower and next to the toilet, adding stair railings and improving the lighting in their homes.

Other Safety Tips include keeping emergency numbers in large print near each phone.  Putting a phone near the floor in case they fall and can't get up.  Think about wearing an alarm device that will bring help in case you fall and can't get up. 

Taking these simple steps will increase safety and help prevent a fall which could have otherwise been avoided.  

Fall and injury prevention continues to be a major problem across the care continuum. In the United States, falls are the most common cause of nonfatal nursing home injuries for people older than 65 years. Up to 32 percent of community-dwelling individuals over the age of 65 fall each year. Females fall more frequently than males in this age group.

The sequelae from falls are severe. Fall-related injuries account for up to fifteen percent of rehospitalizations in the first month after discharge from hospital. Further, the trauma resulting from the fall itself is most often the cause of morbidity and mortality.

Inpatient fall prevention has been an individual area of concern for nursing for almost 50 years. Traditional hospital-based incident reports deem all inpatient falls to be avoidable, and therefore falls are classified as adverse events. Indeed, falls are the most frequently reported adverse events in the adult inpatient setting.

Accordingly, Screening for fall and injury risk should be performed across nursing home and assisted care settings. In the community, all patients older than 65 years should be screened, and in the home care, acute care, and long-term care settings, patients of all ages should be screened. Screening needs to include injury risk, not just fall risk. The most effective interventions are multimodal ones that address specific areas of risk and work with interdisciplinary nursing home fall-prevention teams.

The Fall Prevention Center of Excellence recommends the following fall prevention methods be used in nursing homes to decrease risk nursing home neglect or serious injury:

• Educate staff about safety care.
• Train medical team, including students and residents, for fall-injury risk assessment and postfall assessment.
• Use alarm devices.
• Monitor medication side effects and adjust as needed.
• Adjust environment (e.g., design rooms to promote safe patient movement).
• Provide exercise interventions (e.g., Tai Chi) for longterm care patients.
• Provide toileting regimen for confused patients (e.g., check patients every 2 hours)
• Monitor and treat calcium and vitamin D levels for long-term care patients.
• Treat underlying disorders such as syncope, diabetes, and anemia.

If you or a loved one has fallen victim to Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect and you would like to discuss your case with a qualified and caring Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer, please call us Brent Wieand, Esq. or fill out our convenient on-line case evaluation form immediately. We will provide you a no obligation, COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL, consultation.

One man was killed and twelve other people were injured on Monday night when a car and SEPTA bus collided in Ogontz.  According to a SEPTA spokeswoman, this accident was reported just after 6 p.m. Monday on Old York Road near Sparks Street.

Witnesses told police that the Route 55 bus - which was carrying 20 passengers at the time - was driving south on Old York Road when a black Acura sedan in the northbound lane veered into the southbound lane and smashed into the bus head-on.  A male passenger in the Acura was pronounced dead on the scene. His age and identity were not made immediately available.

A 31-year-old woman who was driving the car was taken to the Albert Einstein Medical Center, officials said. She was listed in stable condition Monday night.

The bus driver and ten passengers were taken to Temple University Hospital, Albert Einstein Medical Center and Hahnemann Univeristy Hospital.  Luckily, none of these passengers had had life-threatening injuries.  As part of a new SEPTA initiative to reduce false claims fraud, the SEPTA bus is equipped with a surveillance system and the footage.  This footage will be reviewed on Tuesday. 

Source

The leading cause of injury and death in the United States is motor vehicle accidents. As a whole, Americans drive over 3 trillion miles each year. With so many people on the road, being involved in a serious accident almost seems inevitable. 

If you have been injured in a Pennsylvania car accident, contact Brent Wieand, Esquire for a free consultation.  There are no upfront fees associated with your inquiry or representation. The first consultation is free and at this time I will advise you whether or not you actually have a case for compensation arising from your Pennsylvania car accident.  I will investigate the accident, interview witnesses and collect medical reports from your doctor to prepare your claim for settlement or litigation.  Most of the time Pennsylvania car accident cases are settled out of court. 

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1,800 older adults living in nursing homes die each year from fall-related injuries and those who survive falls frequently sustain hip fractures and head injuries that result in permanent disability and reduced quality of life.  Alarmingly, between half to three quarters of nursing home residents fall, which is double the amount of falls for adults living in the community.  Patients often experience multiple falls, about two and a half per resident on average.

Studies have shown that about ten to twenty percent of nursing home falls result in serious injury.  Two to six percent of falls result in fractured bones. 

Due to these serious risks, care providers for nursing home residents must aim to reduce both the fall rate as well as the rate of fall-related morbidity in the long-term care setting.  In fact, nursing homes are required by law to undertake fall prevention intervention.  An effective multifaceted fall prevention program for nursing home residents should include risk factor assessment and modification, staff education, gait assessment and intervention, assistive device assessment and optimization, as well as environmental assessment and modification.  

Further, nursing home staff should be educated about the serious risk of harm falls pose to residents and what strategies should be used to minimize the risk of falling.  Such strategies can include putting in grab bars, installing bed alarms for residents which are prone to wonder, adding raised toilet seats, lowering bed heights, and installing handrails in the hallways. 

If you are concerned about a loved one that has sustained serious injuries due to a fall at nursing home, call Brent Wieand for a free consultation at 267-443-8487 to learn about what rights and legal recourse he/she may have. 

Bedsores are a great concern among the bedridden nursing home population.  Bedsores (which are also called pressure sores, pressure ulcers or decubitus) are injuries to skin and underlying tissues that result from prolonged pressure on the skin.  Bedsores most often develop on skin that covers bony areas of the body, such as the heel, ankles, hips or buttocks.  Bedsores are primarily caused by pressure against the skin that inhibits an adequate supply of blood to skin and underlying tissues.

Nursing home residents most at risk of bedsores are those with a medical condition that limits their ability to change positions, requires them to use a wheelchair or confines them to a bed for prolonged periods.

Several care strategies should be used by nursing homes to prevent bedsores and promote healing.  Inspection of the skin should be a part of routine nursing home care for anyone who is confined for a long time to a wheelchair or bed or for anyone who has limited ability to reposition himself or herself.  Bedridden residents should be moved or repositioned every 2 hours to minimize rubbing, pressure and friction against the skin.  Moreover, immediate medical care should be sought for any resident that shows signs of infection, such as drainage or foul odor from a sore, fever, or increased heat and redness in the skin surrounding the sore.

Bedsores fall into one of four stages based on their severity. The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, a professional organization that promotes the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers, has defined each stage as follows.

Stage I
The beginning stage of a pressure sore has the following characteristics:

• The skin is intact.
• The skin appears red on people with lighter skin color, and the skin doesn't briefly lighten (blanch) when touched.
• On people with darker skin, there may be no change in the color of the skin, and the skin doesn't blanch when touched. Or the skin may appear ashen, bluish or purple.
• The site may be painful, firm, soft, warmer or cooler compared with the surrounding skin.

Stage II
The stage II ulcer is an open wound:

• The outer layer of skin (epidermis) and part of the underlying layer of skin (dermis) is damaged or lost.
• The pressure ulcer may appear as a shallow, pinkish-red, basin-like wound.
• It may also appear as an intact or ruptured fluid-filled blister.

Stage III
At this stage, the ulcer is a deep wound:

• The loss of skin usually exposes some amount of fat.
• The ulcer has a crater-like appearance.
• The bottom of the wound may have some yellowish dead tissue (slough).
• The damage may extend beyond the primary wound below layers of healthy skin.

Stage IV
A stage IV ulcer exhibits large-scale loss of tissue:

• The wound may expose muscle, bone and tendons.
• The bottom of the wound likely contains slough or dark, crusty dead tissue (eschar).
• The damage often extends beyond the primary wound below layers of healthy skin.

If you have questions about the legal rights of loved one that may be a victim of nursing home neglect or abuse, please contact me at 267-443-8487.  The consultation is free of charge.  

In civil claims for injuries resulting from negligence, a common defense tactic is to allege fault on the plaintiff by claiming he/she was drunk at the time of the accident.  However, in negligence cases, evidence of intoxication is not always admissible.  Preclusion of this evidence is often necessary so that a jury is not mislead by unsupported and self-serving evidence that a claimant was drunk at the time of an accident.

Pennsylvania trial judges enjoy broad discretion regarding the admissibility of potentially misleading and confusing evidence.   A trial court may properly exclude evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice.  Generally for purposes of this evidentiary rule, "prejudice" means an undue tendency to suggest a decision on an improper basis. The erroneous admission of harmful evidence constitutes reversible error.

Where carelessness or recklessness is at issue, proof of intoxication is relevant, but the mere fact of consuming alcohol is inadmissible as unfairly prejudicial unless it reasonably establishes intoxication.  Pennsylvania courts have found that when a disinterested witness failed to detect the same odor of alcohol as alleged by the self-serving testimony of the defendant, evidence of odor of alcohol was not evidence tending to prove a degree of intoxication of carelessness or recklessness on the part of the plaintiff.  See Whyte v. Robinson, 421 Pa. Super. 33 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1992).  In Whyte, the Court held that evidence intoxication is inadmissible unless it proves unfitness [of the activity at issue]. 

Accordingly, evidence of intoxication is not always admissible.  This evidence may be excluded at trial if its probative value is outweighed by its prejudicial effects.  

There is legislation before Governor Tom Corbett that would increase the penalties for those convicted of drunken driving who have minors in the vehicle at the time of arrest.

Under Senate Bill 539, the maximum find for a first offense would be $1,000 and 100 hours of community service. A second offense would carry a maximum fine of $2,500 and imprisonment of up to six months. Drivers convicted of subsequent offenses could be jailed for up to two years. The Fines and imprisonment required under Senate Bill 539 would apply on top of current penalties.

In Pennsylvania, a driver is considered intoxicated if he has a BAC of .08 or higher. In addition, Pennsylvania has a series of penalty tiers, depending on the driver's BAC. The tiers are .08, .10 to .159%, and .16 or higher.