With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Governor waived many restrictions on healthcare and nurse practitioners in the interest of providing much-needed care. Many of those waivers have now expired, but we are left with data suggesting that some of the guardrails perhaps were not necessary or were a barrier to providing patient care. Pennsylvania State Senators […]

A 5-2 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision (Villani v. Seibert) overturned a ruling from Chester County Court of Common Pleas Judge Edward Griffith granting preliminary objections to a Dragonetti Act complaint on the basis that the claim violated the Pennsylvania Constitution. Judge Saylor wrote for the majority with Justices Baer, Todd, Dougherty, Mundy joining. The underlying […]

Nursing home arbitration agreements remain the subject of scrutiny here in Pennsylvania and beyond. A recent challenge to a Kentucky arbitration agreement recently made its way to the Supreme Court of the United States (Kindred Nursing Centers, L.P. v. Clark). The underlying case involves two families, two different power of attorney agreements, and two identical nursing […]

Consult experienced healthcare counsel to help navigate your nursing care facility through the licensure and survey process and prevent and manage risk.

Because there is much to be learned about the impact of the Pennsylvania medical marijuana law, physicians must tread carefully.

The news should be heartening: medical malpractice verdicts have hit a 15-year low[1]. In 2015, 101 medical malpractice cases were tried to jury verdict. By contrast, an average of 326 cases went to jury verdict from January 2000 to July 2003. In 2015, new medical malpractice case filings dropped 44 percent from the 2000 to […]

For nursing homes, it may seem prudent and efficient to have residents and/or their family sign arbitration agreements to help avoid costly lawsuits later. However, as seen in a recent Berks County case, arbitration agreements should be approached with extreme caution. Judge Jeffrey Sprecher of Berks County Court of Common Pleas overruled preliminary objections seeking […]

In a closely watched medical malpractice action, the Michigan courts are continuing to grapple with the boundaries of peer review protection. Peer review generally refers to process by which health care professionals engage in critical analysis to improve patient care. In an effort to encourage robust dialogue and analysis, many states have developed immunity statutes […]