You are on page 1of 1

More legal Information for nurses is available at Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession Home

Page.

legal eagle eye Newsletter Nursing Home Negligence: Arbitration Will


Go Forward Despite AAA Policy Change.
T he day after the resident was admitted to
long-term care, his daughter, whom he had
named in his durable power of attorney, signed
tual dispute arose between the patient or pa-
tient’s representative and a healthcare provider.
The Court of Appeals of North Carolina
For the Nursing Profession

several documents related to his admission, in- ruled that did not change the fact there is still a
cluding an arbitration agreement. strong public policy in favor of alternative reso-
Slightly more than three years later, after the lution of disputes in the healthcare arena.
resident had died, the same daughter, acting as The basic AAA arbitration agreement
executor of her late father’s probate estate, filed signed in this case called for the arbitration to
a lawsuit against the nursing facility alleging that proceed by the AAA rules, and that was how it
her father’s death was caused by negligence would proceed, the Court said, even if the AAA
committed at the facility. itself would not be involved.
The nursing home countered the daughter’s No Problem With the Agreement
civil lawsuit by asking the court to take the case The arbitration agreement was separate from
off the jury trial docket so that it could be re- the rest of the admission papers, was clearly la-
solved by alternate dispute resolution, that is, by beled as a arbitration agreement, was presented
arbitration based on the arbitration agreement. to the daughter for her voluntary signature, urged
AAA Has Changed Its Position On her to consult with her attorney before signing
Pre-Dispute Arbitration Agreements and was not held out as a condition of admitting
One of the estate’s arguments against arbi- or keeping her loved one in the facility.
tration was that the American Arbitration Asso- The daughter had the opportunity to read the
ciation (AAA), a widely used provider of arbitra- arbitration agreement, knew what it meant and
tion forms and arbitration services, recently signed it voluntarily. Like any other contract,
changed its official position and will no longer the arbitration agreement was entitled to enforce-
handle arbitrations where the arbitration agree- ment at the nursing facility’s behest, the Court
ment, as in this case, was signed before the ac- ruled. Westmoreland v. High Point, __ S.E. 2d __ ,
2012 WL 120043 (N.C. App., January 17, 2012).

Incomplete Nursing Documentation: Jury Gives


Critical Care Nurses The Benefit Of The Doubt.
T he patient sued the hospital where
she was treated for multiple trauma
after a serious motor vehicle accident.
“If you didn’t chart it, you
The patient’s physician expert testi-
fied that lack of explicit mention of the
three-person log-rolling technique each
She claimed in her lawsuit that her spi-
didn’t do it,” is an accepted time it was noted that the patient re-
nal injuries were compounded by mis- maxim of nursing practice. ceived care in bed over eleven days was
handling at the hands of the nurses in It means that the defen- affirmative proof the nurses did not use
the hospital’s neurocritical unit. dant nurses and hospital correct technique and, therefore, that
There were orders from the physi- could have difficulty prov- changes seen on a later spinal MRI
cians to the nurses for spine precautions compared to one right after admission
which included use of a three-person
ing something not docu- were caused by nursing negligence.
log-rolling technique any time the pa- mented was actually done. The Court of Appeals of Utah,
tient was moved in bed for treatments, It does not necessarily however, affirmed the jury’s verdict of
bathing, toileting, linen changes, etc. prove affirmatively that care no negligence by the nurses based on
The nursing progress notes did not was not provided, as the the testimony of the hospital’s nursing
explicitly document use of the above expert that it was the practice in the
technique each time she was moved.
patient’s expert erroneously neurocritical unit always to log-roll
Hospital standing policies also testified. It just sets up a spinal patients unless the nurses were
called for posting a spine-precautions risky question of credibility told otherwise and that it was fully
sign above the head of the bed of any for the jury to resolve. documented in the chart the patient was
spine-precaution patient, which appar- COURT OF APPEALS OF UTAH on spine precautions. Turner v. Univ. of
ently was not done this time. December 22, 2011 Utah Hosp., __ P. 3d __, 2011 WL 6425438
(Utah App., December 22, 2011).

Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession February 2012 Page 8
More legal Information for nurses is available at Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession Home Page.

You might also like