As caregivers, nursing home personnel have an obligation to exercise some protective oversight and supervision over their patients. While most nursing home patients do not have access to their own banking or financial records, and cannot send money or charge items, for the few that do it is imperative that facilities be on the lookout for ...

Decisions to terminate employees (whether those are described as firings, terminations, layoffs or the more politically-correct ''downsizing'') are never fun. They're hard on employees, and they're very hard on managers who may be assuming more duties as a result of losing staff. When termination decisions are made, they are often made on ...

One thing soldiers with recent combat experience say is that frequently it's the non-combatants who suffer the worst in battle. This is something like the observation my daughter, a pediatrician, makes about working in the ER:  it's the innocent bystanders that are always hurt the worst. The same is true when end-of-life issues clash ...

Nearly every nursing home has labor problems related to getting and keeping good staff members. Good help is exceptionally hard to find. Good-hearted nurses and aides, who are willing to work long hours under difficult conditions are often hard to find.  Too many employees means the bottom line of the facility suffers. Too few ...

In law school one of the more esoteric doctrines of property law -- the bailment -- gets a lot of attention. Cases involving bailments for hire are distinguished from other bailments. The effects of disclaimers are studied.  In the end, the bottom line is this:  when someone delivers to another a piece of property for safekeeping, ...

On September 17, 2009, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court overruled a decision by the Court of Appeals involving a licensure proceeding filed against a former nurse's aide by the Department of Health. In the proceeding, the Department of Health charged that the nurse's aide copied parts of a patient's medical record to bolster her employment ...

There is a difference between a novel and a news story in a newspaper, even though both are printed on paper. Similarly, there is a difference between a legal drama like Law and Order, and what actually happens in the nation's criminal courts.  The fact is that those who practice in the criminal and civil justice systems know that these ...

The patient's oxygen saturation on the pulse oximeter showed a dangerously low value. Narcan was administered.  Intubation equipment was readied. The patient was groggy, but did not appear to be in significant respiratory distress.  Another oximeter was obtained that showed a much better oxygen saturation value. The ...

A press release from ALFA today announces that the Senate Finance Committee accepted an amendment by Senator Bill Nelson to Senator Max Baucus' health care reform legislation that would eliminate prescription drug co-payments under the Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program for all dual eligible residents in assisted living ...

Lawyers operate in a funny world. On one side of the law legislative governments write statutes.  On the other side of things, courts issue decisions and catalog them.  As a result, knowing the law means both knowing what the statutes say and what the decisions say and mean.  Sometimes ''commentators'' - a fancy term for law ...