Dr. Ruth Rimmer brings 16 plus years of experience in the field of burns and trauma care to her life care planning business. She specializes in plans addressing future care needs for

Severely Burned Pediatric Patients

Severely Burned Adult Patients

Patients with Traumatic Injury

Electrical Injuries

Amputations

Educational Issues Associated with Burn Injury

Psychological Issues Related to Burns and Traumatic Injury

Dr. Howard Caston has been providing Vocational Services for Disabled Individuals as an independent practitioner since 1983. He has contracted with vendors such as government agencies, attorneys, insurance companies, managed care organizations, and others. Dr. Caston has previously worked for Goodwill Industries as a rehabilitation coordinator and the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission-Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation as a rehabilitation counselor, counselor manager, and rehabilitation supervisor.

Dr. Caston holds a Ph.D. in Vocational Rehabilitation from the University of Cincinnati and has taught rehabilitation courses for graduate students at the University of Cincinnati and Wright State University. He has also taught vocational rehabilitation courses at Capital University Law School for life care planners.

Dr. Caston's professional, competent, vocational opinions are provided at the request of attorneys. Opinions can be given when called to testify in court concerning vocational abilities of individuals who are involved in litigation. Dr. Caston has qualified as an expert vocational witness in numerous courts.

Kristy Farnsworth is a Board Certified Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor and Licensed Psychologist. She has provided a wide range of Vocational Rehabilitation services for the past 27 years. Dr. Farnsworth's board certifications and experience have allowed her to focus on the analysis and evaluation of a variety of cases.

Areas of Expertise:

Gary Young is a Rehabilitation Consultant with over 30 years of experience providing Rehabilitation Case Management Services. He specializes in Catastrophic Case Management, and is a consultant on Americans with Disabilities Act issues providing sensitivity training, compliance issues, job analysis and employee training sessions.

Mr. Young has spoken at over 50 seminars on legal, medical and insurance related issues. Topics include Americans with Disabilities Act, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, Severe Orthopedic Injuries, Vocational Evaluations, etc. He has been accepted as an expert in 8 states for workers compensation and litigation matters.

Areas of Expertise:

• Economic Loss Evaluations
• Projections in Injury Cases Focusing on Residual Productive Skill & Value
• Future, Vocational & Economic Projections
• Placement Services

Kristen Jones, RN, CLNC, CNLCP has over 25 years of clinical and administrative hospital experience in Obstetrics and Quality Assurance.

She is a Certified Nurse Life Care Planner and specializes in Life Care Planning for Cerebral Palsy, Birth Injuries, Traumatic Brain Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, Burns, Chronic Pain, and Chronic Progressive Debilitating Diseases. Life Care Planning is the estimation of medical and non-medical needs of a person whose capability to function in and relate to the outside world has changed dramatically. She includes home visits if possible.

She is a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, specializing in Comprehensive Case Review and Screening for Merit. Her background in Labor & Delivery and Obstetrics is essential for reviewing “Bad Baby” cases needing Fetal Heart Tracing Interpretation and Labor and Delivery record review. Also offered are Cost Projections and Life Care Planning services.

Services Offered:Life Care Planning, LCP Rebuttal, Case Screening for Merit, Comprehensive Case Review, Fetal Heart Tracing Interpretation, all LNC-LCP services.

Education and Certifications:

Since 1983, Medical Advisors, Inc. / Technical Network Consulting Service has assisted in the selection of experts in several thousand cases. Working with plaintiff and defense bar, we have provided opinions and testimony which have resulted in competent preparation and in-court support for cases involving scientific, technical, engineering matters as well as medical malpractice, hospital negligence, personal injury, workers’ compensation, product liability and nursing homes. A detailed telephone consultation explores all aspects of your case. This simplifies the job of finding the right expert.

Donna Post, RN is a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant (CM) and Nurse Care Planner Certified (NCPC), a certification for RN Life Care Planners. Ms. Post has nearly 25 years of experience in cardiac telemetry and progressive care, Medical ICU, trauma ICU, Cardiovascular ICU, Pediatric ICU, high-tech home health care, and case management of clients with developmental disabilities and complex medical conditions. Since 1985 she has held various nursing positions in both hospital and community settings.

Wanting to assure high standards of care and a better understanding of the Healthcare Finance, Ms. Post obtained her Masters in Business Administration with a concentration in Healthcare Management. She worked as a manager for a cardiovascular program Overseeing the Operations, Standards of Care, and Maintaining Regulatory Standards for multiple units. She brought years of experience and knowledge with her when she obtained the role as a Regional Operations Director overseeing dialysis clinics for a nationwide dialysis company.

Ms. Post founded Mid-Valley Legal Nurse Consulting, Inc. (MVLNC), to provide consultative services to attorneys, insurance companies, healthcare organizations and private individuals.

Areas of Expertise:

Administration

Dialysis

Emergency Room

Coronary & Cardiovascular Intensive Care

Medical & Trauma Intensive Care

Medical-Surgical & Telemetry

Pediatric ICU

Labor and Delivery

Home Care

Health and Wellness

Long Term Care

Jerry Albert has over 30 years of experience in all realm of Worker's Compensation. He is known as an innovator in the area of Disability Management and Vocational Rehabilitation Expert Services for Persons with Acute or Chronic Illnesses or Injuries.

Mr. Albert has partnered with employers, insurers, claim administrators and agencies to achieve the goal of restoring Physical Function and returning injured workers to employment. He has extensive experience in reviewing the areas of: Rehabilitation, Life Care Planning, Medical Records, and Vocational & Nursing Related Issues.

Areas of Expert Practice:

Michele Nielsen is a Legal Nurse Consultant and Nationally Certified Medical Case Manager, Vocational Counselor, and Life Care Planner, with 25 years of experience. She is licensed to practice nursing in Oregon and Washington. Ms. Nielsen has received national awards such as Outstanding Rehabilitation Professional and Outstanding Rehabilitation Nurse.

Ms. Nielsen provides full-service Legal Nurse Consulting and Life Care Planning, Specializing in Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury, and Workers' Compensation.

Expertise & Services Include:

Dr. James Patrick, Ph.D., has over 25 years of experience as a Certified Life Care Planner, Certified Rehabilitation Counselor, Senior Disability Analyst, and a Qualified Rehabilitation Provider in the state of Florida. Dr. Patrick's experience includes Rehabilitation, working with Adults, Children and Families. He provides Life Care Plans, Vocational Assessments, Family Assessments, Job Placement and Job Development.

Dr. Patrick also provides a continuum of services from the development of a Life Care Plan or Vocational Assessment through to coordinating future services. This continuum includes supporting all recommendations made in the Life Care Plan or Vocational Assessment, working with the individual as Case Manager, providing Medical Care coordination and coordinating services in the future. Additionally, he can provide consultation to those involved in the care of an individual (i.e., family, guardian, trustee, advocate, or case manager) to assist in making Healthcare Decisions.

Services Include:

RPC assists attorneys in Personal Injury, Commercial and Healthcare litigation, with economic damages and regulatory analysis, from loss of profits or earnings to contract disputes, business valuation, state and federal anti-trust disputes, and fraud and abuse investigations. Indepth experience in healthcare liability and damage issues.

RPC has prepared damage studies covering the construction, technology, manufacturing, waste management, trucking, public utility, real estate, healthcare, managed care and other industries and professions. Clients nationwide.

Led by Ronald T. Luke, PhD, JD, RPC’s experienced team of professional staff has backgrounds in law, medicine, economics, accounting, business valuation, health administration, nursing, life care planning, finance, and vocational assessment, and provide an integrated damages analysis. The RPC team works closely with litigators from discovery to mediation to trial to understand the issues in the case to develop an independent analysis of those issues and to provide a professional critique of the work of experts retained by other parties to the litigation.

Dr. Luke and his colleagues have been accepted as expert witnesses in state and federal courts and before administrative agencies in more than 25 states, and have testified in regulatory proceedings and consulted on projects for major national hospital chains, as well as community hospitals.

Because of RPC's multi-disciplined staff and large-scale document management and data management resources, it is capable of handling large cases.

Areas of Expertise:

Ms. Roughan is a Rehabilitation Nurse Specialist who functions in the capacity of case manager, life care planner and expert witness. Her company, Roughan & Associates at LINC, is a nationally recognized Case Management and Medical/Legal Consulting service. It has been in existence since 1987, providing coordination of patient care; construction of Life Care Plans; and, consultative services to both the defense and plaintiff bar on simple and complex cases alike. Ms. Roughan has experience with diagnoses involving both children and adults and are knowledgeable in current treatment philosophies, identification of appropriate resources.

Diagnoses include, but are not limited to:

Cassandra Lynn Hall Valdivia RN, BSN, LNC, CNLCP is a Life Care Planner and Legal Nurse Consultant as well as, Co-founder of Songer Valdivia and Associates Legal Nurse Consultants she has experience in clinical areas including Progressive Care, ICU, Emergency Room, Case Management, and Quality Management. .

Cassandra actively practices nursing in the Emergency Room.

CERTIFIED NURSE LIFE CARE PLANNING:

As a nurse, Cassandra is uniquely positioned to provide comprehensive holistic evaluations of clients with catastrophic injuries for both the plaintiff and the defense. Her experience in Quality Management provides an understanding of billing and coding allowing for more exact financial evaluations. She has been retained as an expert on cases for both the plaintiff and defense. Additionally, she has been retained as an advisor for economists in personal injury cases.

CASE MANAGEMENT SERVICES PROVIDED:

Shannon Debedout, B.A., M.Ed., CRC, CVE, CCM is a Vocational Economic Analyst. She provides Expert Witness Testimony regarding information from assessments, medical care coordination, vocational evaluation and rehabilitation economic analysis. Her services are beneficial in Medical Malpractice, Personal Injury, Medicare Set Aside, Employment Law, Divorce, Workers Compensation and SSDI cases.

Ms. Debedout evaluates the nature and extent of alleged loss from a vocational and/or economic perspective by comparing earnings capacity pre and post incident to identify if change in earnings capacity exists.

Ms. Debedout evaluations include the medical, social, mental and vocational aspects of disability. Her Rehabilitation Plan outlines services that can improve quality of life and identify what is needed to return the individual to appropriate work.

Areas of Expertise:

Vocational & Rehabilitation Services offers Vocational, Employability, Earning Capacity Evaluations, Vocational Rehabilitation, Disability Management, Job Analysis and Expert Testimony in personal injury, matrimonial, employment discrimination, workers’ compensation, malpractice, Longshore and harbor Workers, Jones Act, FELA and long term disability cases.

Rehabilitation Evaluation services include scientific assessment of Transferable Skills, Labor Market and Wage Surveys, Pre- and Post-Injury Employability and Earning Capacity Determinations, and Life Care Planning to determine needs and costs of future care.

Licensed and Board Certified Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors and Certified Life Care Planners are available for the following: