In The News

Trusting a facility with your loved one’s care is one of the hardest decisions a family makes.

You expect safety. Dignity. Proper medical attention. Basic human care.

When that trust is broken, the consequences can be devastating.

And sometimes, facilities don’t just fail to provide proper care. They hide the evidence.

A Story from One of Our Cases:

A family entrusted their loved one to a nursing facility’s care.

The facility provided medical records showing a Fall Risk Care Plan had been in place during the resident’s stay.

But something didn’t look right.

We requested the complete electronic medical record and audit trail—the data showing who accessed the records, when, and what changes were made.

The facility objected. Again and again.

“We don’t have an audit trail.” “It doesn’t exist.” “Audits are managed by a third party, we can’t access them.” “This is unduly burdensome.”

We kept digging.

We researched federal regulations. We found proof that their EMR system was required to maintain audit trails. We filed motions to compel. We fought through their objections.

Finally, we obtained a court order for a virtual inspection of the facility’s electronic medical record system.

The facility appealed all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court to avoid the inspection.

They lost.

Three days after losing their final appeal, they produced the complete record.

Here’s what we found:

The Fall Risk Care Plan they’d shown the family—the one that appeared to be in place during the resident’s stay?

It was backdated.

The audit trail revealed the “Created On” date: the care plan was created AFTER the resident’s discharge and death.

Not just inadequate care. Falsified records.

The facility had excluded the timestamp from their initial production to make it appear the care plan existed during the resident’s stay.

It didn’t exist at all.

---

This is why we fight for complete records. For audit trails. For the truth.

Because sometimes “inadequate care” isn’t the whole story.

Sometimes facilities falsify records to cover up neglect.

And without the audit trail data—the electronic fingerprints showing who created what and when—families would never know.

---

What makes our firm different in nursing home cases:

We don’t accept incomplete records.

Most firms review whatever the facility provides and move forward. We verify completeness against federal requirements.

We understand electronic health record systems.

We know what data these systems maintain. We know audit trails exist. We know how to get them.

We know the federal regulations.

45 CFR §170.315: EHR systems must log all access and modifications ASTM E2147-18: Standards for audit trails in health information systems HITECH Act & HIPAA: Patient rights to complete medical records

We’re willing to fight for complete discovery.

In the case described above, we:

• Filed multiple motions to compel
• Overcame six different objections
• Pursued the matter through appeals
• Obtained a court-ordered virtual inspection
• Proved the records were falsified

We dig until we find the truth.

Common failures we see in nursing home cases:

Pressure ulcers (bedsores): Stage 3 and 4 ulcers don’t develop overnight. They develop when residents aren’t turned and repositioned. When wound care isn’t provided. When malnutrition isn’t addressed.

Falls: When staffing is inadequate, call lights go unanswered. Residents try to get up alone. Hips break. Heads hit floors.

Dehydration and malnutrition: When there aren’t enough CNAs to assist with meals, residents who can’t feed themselves don’t eat.

Medication errors: Wrong medications. Wrong doses. Missed doses.

Falsified records: Care plans created after the fact. Documentation backdated to appear compliant.

Wrongful death: When neglect is severe enough, it kills.

We have several wrongful death nursing home cases currently pending.

We have a lineup of others in our archives—including the case described above.

We know this work. This is what we do.

We know:

• How nursing homes should operate under Ohio law
• Federal regulations governing staffing, care plans, and documentation
• How to review medical records and identify patterns of neglect
• How electronic health record systems work and what audit trails reveal
• How to obtain court orders for virtual inspections when records appear incomplete or altered
• How to work with medical experts and EHR specialists
• How to hold facilities accountable when they fail vulnerable residents

If your loved one:

 Developed severe pressure ulcers (Stage 3 or 4) while in a facility  Fell multiple times without adequate supervision  Lost significant weight or became dehydrated  Suffered medication errors causing serious harm  Died under circumstances that don’t make sense  Had care plans or records that seem incomplete or don’t add up

You deserve answers. And complete records.

We wrote the article on how to overcome objections to production of complete electronic medical records in nursing home cases.

Literally. It was published in the Cleveland Academy of Trial Attorneys journal (Spring 2023).

Title: “Overcoming Objections to Production of a Complete and Unredacted Audit Trail”

This is what we specialize in.