MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY

New technology accelerates healing

Chronic wound healing advances with an electric bandage, tested in animal models, showing 30% improvement in healing speed compared with traditional bandages. The water-powered electric bandage is designed to accelerate the healing process.

Chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers and diabetic foot sores, are common and persistent challenges among long-term care residents. Those wounds not only cause pain and discomfort but also lead to serious complications, including infections, amputations and increased mortality. Effective management of chronic wounds is essential for improving residents’ quality of life and reducing healthcare costs.

Pressure ulcers are often low-hanging fruit for plaintiff’s lawyers because many residents in elder care facilities are already at risk for developing skin integrity issues. A wound care policy combined with complete, accurate documentation will go a long way in proving your facility took all appropriate skin prevention and treatment measures.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Say “Goodbye” to medical negligence cases as we know them

by Matthew Keris of Marshall Dennehey

Whether you know it or not, some form of artificial intelligence (AI) is likely involved in your current health care. AI use in health care will continue to grow exponentially in ways unimaginable just a few years ago. As AI use increases, medicine will improve, which will likely mean less errors and, therefore, less claims. For claims that do arise in the new era of AI use, we can anticipate they will be more complex, cost more to litigate and impact a larger class of patients.

As health care technology grows, two recent cases of interest, Lowe v. Cerner, 2022 WL 17269066 (6th Cir., Nov. 29, 2022) and In re Acclarent, 2024 WL 2873617 (Tex. App. 2024), foreshadow the future of claims associated with electronic medical record (EMR) systems enhanced by AI. Very soon, expect cases involving health care errors to be based on both negligence and products liability principles with reliance on academically trained EMR clinical informatics as experts—which will change the way cases are raised and defended.

Applicable statutes of limitations will also be of even greater importance moving forward. If a product liability case has a longer statute of limitations than a medical negligence case, there may be situations where the plaintiffs seek a “second bite at the apple” and file a products liability case after the completion of the medical negligence case.

The last and most important change to medical error cases in the age of AI-enhanced EMR systems is the importance of having a qualified medical informatics expert to support the prosecution or defense of the case. They are just as important as medical standard of care and causation experts. Both plaintiffs and defendants are encouraged to retain “medical informatics professionals” to guide them in their cases, rather than rely on persons whose only forensic experience with these systems is from litigation.

CYBERSECURITY

Almost a million Medicare beneficiaries potentially affected by data breach

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service and the Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corp. are notifying 946,801 Medicare beneficiaries whose protected health information or other personally identifiable information may have been compromised in connection with Medicare administrative services provided by WPS.

Compromised information could have included names, Social Security or individual tax identification numbers, Medicare beneficiary identifiers and/or health insurance claim numbers, birth dates, mailing addresses, gender, hospital account numbers and dates of service.

A vulnerability in the MOVEit software made it possible for unauthorized third parties to gain access to personal information that was transferred using MOVEit between May 27 and May 31, 2023.

INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE & NETWORKING

2024 DRI Senior Living and Long-Term Care Litigation Seminar

September 18-20, 2024 | Chicago Hyatt Regency in Chicago, IL

Excelas Founder, Jean Bourgeois, MBA, RHIA, and President, Beth Wilson, JD, will be attending the conference. Say hello, if you will be there. Beth will be moderating “The Bloody Truth about Brain Bleeds & Blood Thinners” panel discussion.

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