Avoiding Legal Land Mines in Home Health Care Nursing

Litigation in home health care has been an extremely rare occurrence. Recently there has been an increase in malpractice law suits against home care agencies, which tend to focus primarily upon issues of impaired communication with physicians, lack of continuity of services, failure to conform with the agencies' own policies and procedures, and inadequate assessment and interventions when changes in the treatment plan are warranted. An understanding of the principles of malpractice liability, an examination of case law in the area, and the components of establishing a risk management program will be investigated.