Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, has an opening starting April 1, 2013, for a Part Time Legal Nurse Consultant to work approximately 20-25 hrs. per week, in our Peoria office. 

 Responsibilities

•  Application of nursing and medicine practice knowledge in drafting acceptance or decline correspondence to potential and actual clients, as well as referring attorney and clientele.
• Exercising judgment and working independently with respect to assigned tasks, keeping and meeting deadlines.
• Preparing or interpreting medical documents for review by attorney for merit/risk exposure determination.
• Reviewing, summarizing and analyzing med. records and other pertinent healthcare and legal documents and comparing/correlating them to the allegations.
• Selecting, compiling and using technical information from such references as digest, journals, monographs, texts or practice manuals.
• Analyzing procedural problems and recommending solutions in certain fields of nursing and medicine through client in-services to clinical practitioners.
• Determines, obtains and reviews all medical records and coordinating billing statements necessary for complete case review.
• Organizes and indexes medical records, performs detailed analysis and determines that all records are complete, including but not limited to missing and additional documents to request.
• Detects any tampering or inconsistencies within the record and sets forth a plan of proof.
• Researching and integrating healthcare and nursing library research regarding case subject areas, including but not limited to standard of care, guidelines, regulations and summarize medical literature and correlating them to the allegations of the file.
• Educates attorney and/or others involved in the legal process regarding medical facts and issues relevant to a case or claim, both supportive and incriminating.
• Identifies, locates, evaluates and confers with appropriate experts in case subject areas and secures their services.  Obtains a fee schedule, updated curriculum vitae.  Identifies the practitioner’s availability, as well as any conflicts of interest with the case parties.  Determines the level of practice needed (community vs. Academic), location, jury appeal and affiliations within the medical population.  Also determines status of board certifications, eligibility, any disciplinary actions pending or in the past, or any terminations through the local State Board of Licensure or Healing Arts.
• Contacting and conferring with vendors to develop demonstrative evidence (i.e. medical charts, models, schematics, etc.), and to collect costs of healthcare services, supplies and equipment for use at deposition and trial.
• Prepares attorney for depositions and/or trials and advises attorney of appropriate strategies with medical witnesses.
• Recommends and selects authoritative medical, nursing and ancillary healthcare textbooks, journal titles and professional organization position statements, technical bulletins, client advisories, etc., for purchase for attorney’s client’s medical library.
• Performs background searches of opposing testifying experts, including credibility, publications, C.V., including but not limited to Internet searches, American Board of Medical Specialties, and colleague networking for prior deposition and/or trial transcripts.
• Participation in leadership and professional organization involvement in a variety of legal, nursing and litigation support groups to keep current with evolving practice issues and settings within the litigation support field.
• Liaison with treating healthcare providers to obtain necessary diagnostic specimens for testing purposes.
• Provides support during discovery, deposition, trial and other legal proceedings as a purely consulting expert.

 Qualifications

•  BSN or RN degree
• At least 3-5 years medical/surgical nursing
• Demonstrated effective oral and written communication skills
• Ability to work effectively with all levels of personnel
• Demonstrated research skills
• Must be detail oriented.

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, provides its employees with highly competitive salaries and benefits, a generous paid time off policy, pension plan and a 401k plan.  Employees are recognized and rewarded for their achievements through annual performance evaluations and salary reviews  The firm encourages ongoing personal development and supports a healthy work/life balance.

Hinshaw is an EEO/AA employer.