Long Term Care Defense

The Long Term Care industry is a frequent target of elder abuse/neglect and malpractice litigation.  Long Term Care defense typically involves litigating two cases at once: A medical malpractice professional liability case and a corporate liability case.  A good defense requires a firm that understands the importance and complexity of defending both the medicine and the business entity against bias and a preconceived notion that business entities are prone to place profits over their patients.  The attorneys at SCHAEFFER  COTA  ROSEN  LLP  have the knowledge, experience, skill, and determination to successfully defend both the medical and the corporate liability aspects of long term care litigation.

Adverse patient outcomes in a long-term care setting can occur even when the direct care providers exercise sound professional judgment in developing and carrying out a plan of care. Complex medical issues, pre-existing co-morbid conditions, family issues, payor source, and reimbursement issues are among the circumstances which underlie the placement of elderly and dependent adult patients in the long-term care setting.  It is critical to retain a defense team capable of early determination of when adverse outcomes were unavoidable (given the unique medical issues that confront each individual patient/resident) and when the adverse outcome was caused or contributed to by care that fell below the appropriate standard for the type of care delivered.

Healthcare facility defendants are frequently maligned because they are typically operated by a corporate entity.  Jurors are predisposed to distrust corporations rendering facilities more susceptible to arguments that the facility’s operation values ‘profits over people. Corporate decisions are also argued to amount to elder and dependent adult abuse, fraud, or other intentional torts and to, therefore, fall outside the MICRA protections afforded to professional healthcare providers.  The attorneys at SCHAEFFER  COTA  ROSEN  LLP  have the legal experience and acumen to convincingly argue for enforcement of MICRA protections despite allegations of corporate misconduct, abuse or intentional tort.  The firm is also adept at defending the propriety of the business practices and decision making of the business entity or facility defendant.  Most healthcare institution business models have a primary goal of improving patient outcomes. However, this is often a difficult proposition to prove in the context of an individual patient’s adverse outcome.  The firm’s attorneys have the knowledge and skill to convincingly convey that direct care is delivered to patients by a team of professional individuals dedicated to achieving the best patient outcome practical under the circumstances.

The legal team at SCHAEFFER  COTA  ROSEN  LLP excels at defending both the medical and the corporate liability aspects of long term care and elder abuse neglect litigation.   The firm’s attorneys are experts at explaining complex medical causation issues to judge and jury.  The firm’s attorneys also have the knowledge skill and experience to tell the story of corporate management enabling the delivery of quality direct patient care as a collaboration of a team of skilled and compassionate caregivers.

SCHAEFFER  COTA  ROSEN  LLP represent all types of long term care providers, including skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, care facilities for the developmentally disabled, home health agencies, individual caregiver professionals such as physicians, medical groups, facility administrators, nurses, therapists, consultants, and individuals who are business entity owners, officers, directors, and managing agents.