Patient’s Fall: Court Requires Expert Opinion.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
February 2016
The patient’s attorney said in his opening statement to the jury that it was a violation of the standard of care for one CNA alone to transfer the patient, without checking the chart for her physical capacity assessment and medications and for improperly using the gait belt. At that point the patient’s case became subject to dismissal because those issues can only be proven with expert testimony.
COURT OF APPEALS OF KANSAS January 8, 2016The patient fell while getting into her car in the hospital parking lot shortly after being discharged following a right-side total knee replacement.
There were two versions of how the incident occurred. The patient’s husband claimed the CNA who helped her to the car put a gait belt around her waist, but then got distracted chatting with others in the parking lot, neglected to pay attention to what she was doing and let his wife fall. The CNA claimed she discussed the transfer with the patient beforehand. She would help the patient stand next to the car and then the patient would pivot on her good leg and sit in the car and then the CNA would help her swing her legs in. Instead, the patient got up and tried to pivot on the right leg with the new knee, lost her balance and fell.
The Court of Appeals of Kansas ruled the case had to be dismissed because the patient did not have an expert opinion to back up the allegations her lawyer was raising in the lawsuit, regardless of which version of the facts the jury might find was the actual truth.
Lanam v. Hospital, 2016 WL 105046 (Kan. App., January 8, 2016).More from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-liability.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-negligence.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/patient-fall-nurses-charting.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/fall-case-negligence.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/fallfrombed.htm