The Nurses Service Organization (NSO) has released its 2015 claims report.  NSO collects data every year including claims against nurses, their areas of practice and how the claim is resolved. Of 549 claims against nurses last year that were closed, 88.5% involved RN’s while 11.5% involved LPN’s.  This is interesting because this is almost the same ratio of the number of practicing RNs to LPNs.  NSO paid almost an astounding $90.4-million in malpractice claims against nurses.  But the average … [Read more...]

News stories have been popping up recently about individuals stealing the identity of a nurse to pose as that person to get a job.  For example, Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of late famed singer Whitney Houston, was in a hospice where she was being cared for by an impostor nurse. Because nursing jobs may be more readily available in rural areas and members of the profession often make more money than the average population, it is little wonder that nurses would become the prime targets … [Read more...]

Did you know that you could be on the Medicare/Medicaid exclusion list and not be allowed to take care of Medicare or Medicaid patients?  If you were placed on this list, where would you work?  In this day and age, pretty much every health care entity cares for Medicare or Medicaid patients. So, what is the exclusion list? The Office of the Inspector General (“OIG”) is responsible for maintaining this exclusion list.  When the OIG is considering excluding an individual or entity, the … [Read more...]

Have you ever felt that when something so unexpectedly happens, it’s like you’ve been kicked in the gut?  This is how a lot of my nurses and other health care providers feel when they are terminated from their position or get a complaint before the Licensing Board.  They are good practitioners, but then out of the blue something happens. When this happens, take responsibility.  I’m not saying that you necessarily should admit the incident is your fault, but to take responsibility from the … [Read more...]