New York Personal Injury Attorneys BlogPercutaneous nephrolithotomy, or PCNL, is a minimally invasive urological surgery during which a surgeon removes medium to large kidney stones through a small incision in the back using a hollow scope. The use of PCNL is increasing especially among women and complications are on the rise particularly blood infections. Patients are at risk of developing complications if they are older, sicker and treated in more recent years. Age is significantly associated with increased odds of mortality according to a research from from Khurshid R. Ghani, M.D., of Henry Ford Hospital’s Vattikuti Urology Institute, which was published in the Journal of Urology.
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Medical Malpractice – Hospital Negligence: Children treated in hospitals with a poor patient to nurse staffing ratio have a higher risk to be readmitted within 15 to 30 days
Nurse staffing directly impacts the safety of children in pediatric hospitals. According to a study, led by Dr. Tubbs-Cooley at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, children treated in hospitals with staffing ratios of 1 : 4 or less were significantly less likely to be readmitted within 15–30 days.
Each one patient increase in a hospital’s average staffing ratio increased a medical child’s odds of readmission within 15–30 days by 11% and a surgical child’s likelihood of readmission within 15–30 days by 48% according to the study published in BMJ Quality and Safety in Health Care
This research is coming few days after the Registered Nurse Safe Staffing bill was introduced in Congress.
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Car Accident Injury Prevention: National Seat Belt Campaign “Click it or Ticket” to start on May 20
In 2011, 52% of passengers who were killed in car crashes were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. This rate goes up to 62 % for motor vehicle crashes happening overnight compared to 43% during day time. While looking at gender and age, 66% of young men 18 to 34 year old who were killed in a car crash were not wearing a seat belt.
To prevent these traffic fatalities and increase seat belt use, law enforcement agencies will join forces day and night, during the Memorial Day week-end from coast-to-coast, for an enforcement blitz that delivers the message Click it or Ticket.
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Construction Accidents: OSHA to apply cranes and derricks safety standard requirements to demolition and underground construction sites
In order to prevent and reduce hoisting equipment related accidents in demolition sites and underground construction sites, OSHA is extending the application of the requirements of the August 2010 cranes and derricks in construction standard to all construction sectors.
Starting May 13 2013, the separate standard applying to demolition and underground construction will no longer exist and employers will have to comply with streamlined OSHA standards. As a consequence, the existing operator-certification requirement will be extended to crane operators who perform underground construction work or demolition work. These crane operators have until November 14th 2014 to take their test and get certified.
OSHA says that the August 2010 crane and derricks rules saves an average of 22 lives per year and prevent 175 non fatal injuries per year and that it should also benefit demolition sites and underground construction workers.
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Firefighter injury and Worker injury prevention: change in hospital data collection could make a difference
While working on the Firefighter Injury Research and Safety Trend FEMA project, Workplace safety researchers from Drexel University School of Public Health found out that the addition of industry and occupation data information in the data collected by hospitals would benefit not only firefighters but also every woker in America. Here is a link to the white paper.
Every year an estimated 4.1 million workers suffer a serious work injury or illness however the number of workplace injuries as well as information about the type of injury and how, when and why specific injuries occur are not tracked by hospitals. In the “The Need for Industry and Occupation in Hospital Data” that was just published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dr. Jennifer Taylor, Assistant Professor, and Leslie Frey, Policy Coordinator in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Drexel University School of Public Health petitioned for the inclusion of standards for industry and occupation within hospital data.
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Construction Accidents: Power-line installers, Iron Workers and Roofers have the highest risk of fatal accidents among construction workers
A new version of the Construction Chart Book: The U.S. Construction Industry and its workers was recently released by the Center for Construction Research and Training.
Here are some of the most interesting findings and graphs related to Fatal and Nonfatal Injuries:
– Electrical Power-Line installers are the most at risk to die in a construction accident
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Failure to diagnose breast cancer: New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) to promote Mammogram Awareness
Regular mammograms allow early diagnosis of breast cancer and can save lives. For it’s annual May breast cancer awareness campaign, HCC invites New York City’s public Hospital Staff to “dedicate” their Mammogram to someone they love to promote mammograms awareness.
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The Collateral Attack: Challenging Qualifications of an Expert Witness
In their most recent article in the New York Law Journal our Partner Ben Rubinowitz and his friend and colleague Evan Torgan write about the Collateral Attack of an Expert Witness. The authors point out that it is not enough to prepare for the adversarial collateral attack during cross examination but that it is equally important to scrutinize your own expert’s qualifications, independent of the information contained in his or her resume, to protect against a collateral attack. Specific examples are used to teach trial lawyers techniques to discredit the expert.
To read the article click here
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Ben Rubinowitz to head the National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s National Session
Our managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz and the Hon. Nancy Vaidik (Indianapolis, IN) will be the directors of the NITA’s National Session at the NITA Education Center in Boulder, CO from July 24th to August 1st, 2013.
The National Institute for Trial Advocacy is a world leader in advocacy skills training and publication. The National Session is its most prestigious and longest running program. NITA’s National Session is a life-changing experience for the attorneys who have attended for the last 41 years and this year’s program is no exception. Ben Rubinowitz and the Hon. Nancy Vaidik (Indianapolis, IN) have developed this year’s program schedule to include dedicated drill rooms, motion training, focus groups, and jury selection.
To learn more or register click here.
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National Institute for Trial Advocacy: Teacher training with Ben Rubinowitz
Our managing partner, Ben Rubinowitz will be one of the faculty member leading the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Teacher Training Seminar in New York from June 6th to June 8th at the New York Law School.
In this program, participants are expected to improve their litigation teaching skills by using the NITA learning-by-doing method. You should attend this program if you are interested in becoming a faculty member at NITA or if you simply want to broaden and hone your teaching skills in your firm or in your classroom.
Click here for more information or to register.
