Those of us who are old enough to remember Ronald Reagan, perhaps the greatest president of the 20th Century (and this comes from the mouth of a liberal Democrat, mind you) remember that when it came to dealing with the Russians, he wasn't taking anyone's assurances, but rather, insisted on verifying destruction of things like nuclear ...

From Seattle comes a cautionary tale of why it is necessary to take swift action when any allegation of a sexual nature is lodged against an employee.  Richard Garcia, a respiratory therapist, was charged with sexual abuse of a patient and pleaded guilty, receiving a six month jail sentence in the process.  His employer has not been so ...

If you've flown in the last few years, you've seen this traveler. He is irate. His plane was late. He needs to be in Philadelphia (or Boston, or Tupelo...) tomorrow. He doesn't want excuses, he wants answers. And he doesn't know how to keep his voice below 500 decibels either. Delta Airlines recently announced it was sending all of ...

Lawyers, at least in most states, are not allowed to advertise that they are ''specialists'' in any particular area of the law.  They can say, however, that they limit their practice to a particular type of law. Wilkes & McHugh, P.A. is a law firm in Arkansas that, while it cannot claim that it specializes in nursing home litigation, ...

Jack Nicholson's famous line in A Few Good Men, ''You can't handle the truth,'' is often what I think of when I read reports about delays in reporting patient incidents to state agencies.  Recently, in Minnesota, a nurse's aide sexually assaulted a patient, and the healthcare agency did not report the matter for five days. Every parent ...

I am dumbfounded by the Kansas State Board of Nursing.  Media reports indicate that a 55 year old Kansas nurse is charged in a 10 count indictment with tampering with a consumer product and adulteration of drugs. She supposedly diluted morphine solutions intended for five patients at a skilled nursing facility. Okay, this much I ...

I know that sometimes I must sound like a broken record, but an incident in a Vermont nursing facility underscores why it is so important for nursing personnel to actively manage patient interactions. In Bennington, Vermont an 84-year-old woman suffering from dementia walked into the room of a 58-year-old man. The man was heard yelling, and ...

The $9.13 Solution Suppose someone offered you this deal: You go to jail for thirty years in a federal prison, and we'll pay you X amount. How large would X have to be? In a federal prison you are told when to get up, when to go to bed, and what to eat. You're told where you can go. You're told what jobs you're going to ...

A foreclosure, or the repossession of a home under a deed of trust, is a complex legal process. Until the past few years, foreclosures were rare. In most cases foreclosure is the last step a bank takes, and the last it wants to take when a borrower simply can't make payments. Foreclosed property does not sell well. Foreclosed ...

Oh Mandy Well you came and you gave without taking, But I sent you away, Oh Mandy... In Barry Manilow's famous song he laments a lost love.  The folks in Courtland Virginia, however, are lamenting Mandy for a different reason.  Instead of giving without taking, a new administrator - Mandy Pennington -  has been giving out pink ...