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Showing posts with label MRSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MRSA. Show all posts

Friday, August 22, 2014

Groundbreaking Measure Gives Female First Responders Equal Protection

 The California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA), whose members represent Californians hurt at work, and the California Nurses Association’s (C.N.A.) measure to eliminate gender bias against female first responders in California workers’ compensation insurance passed the Assembly today by a vote of 46 - 23. AB 2616 goes now to the governor for action. AB 2616 (Skinner) is the first measure passed by the Legislature to extend any of the fifteen existing presumptions that male first responders enjoy to first responder occupations dominated by women. “California recognizes that some jobs are so inherently dangerous that those workers should not have to prove that certain injuries were job related,” said CAAA Women’s Caucus Co-Chair Christel Schoenfelder. “First responders like firefighters and police officers who are required to protect the public are presumed to be injured on the job when they get cancer or an infectious disease. There is one group of first responders who do not receive this protection from dangerous conditions. These are hospital employees, 80% of whom are female. Like police officers and firefighters, they are routinely exposed to conditions that can lead to major health problems.” AB 2616 intends to correct this gender imbalance by extending a presumption covering MRSA skin infections to hospital employees who provide direct patient care. MRSA infections are a major health problem in hospitals around the world.
“Nurses and other hospital employees are required to assume great risk, but unlike public safety officers we are not given the same legal protections when we get sick on the job,” said Redding Registered Nurse Kathryn Donahue in a statement urging the governor to sign AB 2616. “MRSA is a virulent antibiotic-resistant staph infection. It’s a job hazard for nurses providing direct patient care in acute care hospitals. MRSA can kill you. Just like police officers and firefighters, nurses put our lives on the line everyday. We don’t know if the patient we are treating has HIV, or MRSA, that we could be exposed to. We just do our job.”

“Assembly member Skinner deserves credit for doggedly pursuing this bill year after year and finally succeeding in her final year,” said Schoenfelder. “Thanks must also go to C.N.A. for making this a priority.”
One out of every six deaths in the US can be attributed to an infection acquired in a hospital. A first responder has an obligation to perform their duties in an emergency. Female workers are often forced to testify to personal details of their lives in an effort by insurance companies to deny claims. As female workers experience this, it has a chilling effect on the willingness of other female workers to come forth with their claims.
“If nurses or other hospital workers who provide direct patient care get MRSA, we have to prove that it didn’t come from any place but our work,” said Donahue. “That’s an almost impossible burden to meet. It exposes nurses to invasive questioning about our personal lives – even our sexual lives – by insurers’ defense attorneys trying to defeat our claims for medical care and disability compensation.”
Schoenfelder said, “The lack of equal protection for health care workers is, in part, due to gender inequity. Public safety first responders are a predominantly male workforce, but hospital employees providing patient care are a predominantly female workforce. The Labor Code currently provides 15 categories of presumptions for various first responders, and all of them are for male dominated workforces. There is not one presumption for first responders like nurses, which is primarily a female workforce. AB 2616 intends to address this gender imbalance by extending equal protection to female-dominated hospital first responder jobs.”
For more information on AB 2616 Support including a video from a Registered Nurse and an applicant’s attorney perspectives can be viewed here.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Claims Adjuster, TPA Could Face Criminal Charges for Worker Fatality



Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.propertycasualty360.com


The egregious ­mismanagement
of a California workers’ compensation
claim is being blamed for an
injured worker’s severe infection
and resultant death.

The ongoing case is drawing ire from various associations, including the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA), which is lobbying that criminal charges be filed against Sedgwick Claims Management Services, the third-party administrator involved in the claim, as well as one of its adjusters.

The initial workers’ compensation claim originated when Charles Romano injured his shoulder and cervical spine on Dec. 20, 2003 while stocking shelves at a Ralph’s grocery store (part of The Kroger Co.) in Camarillo, Calif. After undergoing surgery for the resultant injuries on August 29, 2005, Romano contracted methicillin-resistant straphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which not only caused renal and pulmonary failure but also paralysis below the shoulders (from C8 down).

Romano later sought treatment for the serious infection at the Ventura County Medical Center, where he had no choice but to use Medi-Cal—the state’s version of Medicaid—because Sedgwick refused to authorize treatment. In fact, Medi-Cal paid for Romano’s medical bills dating from November 2005 through February 2007, ultimately picking up a tab for $300,000.

Fatal Consequences
On October 25, 2006, a workers’ compensation judge issued an amended findings and award,ruling that the MRSA infection was a...
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Friday, May 31, 2013

CDC Reports Hospital Infections (MRSA) Can be Dramatically Reduced With Soap and Water

Many injured workers, and other hospital patients, reportedly contract compensable serious hospital infection as a result of poor hygiene. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that increased use of better hygiene in hospitals will dramatically improve the problem of contracting hospital infections.


English: Magnified 20,000X, this colorized sca...
English: Magnified 20,000X, this colorized scanning electron micrograph (SEM) depicts a grouping of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteria. See PHIL 617 for a black and white view of this image. These S. aureus bacteria are methicillin-resistant, and are from one of the first isolates in the U.S. that showed increased resistance to vancomycin as well. Note the increase in cell wall material seen as clumps on the organisms’ surface. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today, on CDC's Safe Healthcare blog, lead author of the REDUCE MRSA trial, Dr. Susan Huang, discusses the results of the landmarkstudy and provides insight into what the findings mean for infection prevention and patient safety. The REDUCE MRSA trial found that using germ-killing soap and ointment on all intensive-care unit (ICU) patients could reduce bloodstream infections by up to 44 percent and significantly reduce the presence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in ICUs.

Dr. Huang is an Associate Professor at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine and Medical Director of Epidemiology and Infection Prevention at UC Irvine Health.

Join the conversation at http://blogs.cdc.gov/safehealthcare.


Thursday, June 9, 2011

3 Ways Infections Become Compensable in Workmens Comp

Infections are nasty and sometimes fatal. Ill employees maybe entitled to collect workmens comp benefits for the treatment and residuals of an infection. Infections are considered communicable diseases and are contagious. There are 3 types of infections that be eligible for payment.


Infections that flow from a traumatic event are generally compensable. Even if there is a delay in seeking professional medical care the injured employee may be entitled to benefits. Sometimes the infections is dormant and does not become manifest for some time after the traumatic event that caused the injury. Preventative antibiotic treatment is sometimes recommended.


Some infections are contracted during treatment such as infection that are acquired during hospital stay. Those are called Hospital Acquired Infections  (HAI). These infection are expensive to treat and are a major concern to insurance carriers and government insurance programs such as Medicare. Medicare plans to impose economic penalties on hospitals for infections, ie. staph (MRSA),  that patient acquired during hospital stays.


A third type of infections are those that are the result of occupational accident and injuries. First responders and medical personnel  who suffer from exposure to meningitis, strep and HIV patients. These exposures may occur by simple contamination of the work area. In California legislation has been offered to establish a presumption that hospital employees infected on the job qualify for workers' compensation benefits.

For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman  1.973.696.7900  jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.


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