Lisa Ortega is the owner and president of Ortega and Associates in Santa Clarita, CA. With more than 15 years in healthcare and a wide range of clinical and leadership experience, Lisa provides consulting services on any case where health, illness, or injury is an issue, including but not limited to: medical or nursing malpractice, personal injury, product liability, toxic torts and workplace injury. Lisa holds a Doctorate in Nursing Practice, a license from the Board of Registered Nursing as a Registered Nurse and Clinical Nurse Specialist, and a certification as a Legal Nurse Consultant. Ortega and Associates is a California-based law firm specialising in healthcare matters. The team possesses years of experience in nursing and medicine, as well as extensive training in the legal aspects of healthcare. Their capabilities include screening medical-related cases, eliminating the time and expense of non-meritorious lawsuits; analysing medical records along with policies, procedures and standards of care; developing reports and chronologies; identifying and locating expert witnesses; attending independent medical exams and providing detailed reports, and more. Contact Lisa M Ortega President Ortega & Associates, LLC 25876 The Old Rd #181, Stevenson Ranch, CA 91381, USA Tel: +1 661-237-0732 E: lisaortega@ortegaandassociates.com www.ortegaandassociates.com fast enough. As a leader in healthcare and a LNC it is of the utmost importance to stay abreast of new regulatory requirements to ensure standards of care practiced are in alignment. Regulatory changes are often the result of safety events that change practice. These new regulatory standards are what all nurses, providers and healthcare facilities are required to be in compliance with at all times. What key qualities do you believe are essential for someone who wants to pursue a career in legal nurse consulting? Key qualities for anyone interested in becoming an LNC are being detailoriented, organised and confident in their knowledge of their practice and role. Being detail-oriented is important because it is often the smallest details that can make a difference in a case, yet these can often be overlooked. Organisation is important because these cases often involve thousands and thousands of pages (whether paper or pdf) to weed through, organise and understand to support a case. Finally, confidence is important because you must have the confidence to communicate with attorneys and verbalise confidently what you as a nurse know to be the standard of care. How do you see the field of legal nurse consulting evolving in the future, and what role will Ortega & Associates play in this evolution? Uses and roles for LNCs will continue to evolve, and not only in lawsuits – it has already started to evolve into mediation and arbitration. There are now LNCs hired by companies that have high injury rates to protect the company or determine if an injury was likely caused by a workplace issue and was not a previous medical condition. I think as time goes on and more people understand the work a legal nurse consultant can do, there will be additional work for which one can provide valuable services. MY LEGAL LIFE 31
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