Resources for Clients and Attorneys Powers & Santola Albany Syracuse New York Lawyers

Resources for Our Clients and for Other Attorneys

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Client and Attorney Resource Center

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General Medical Information

My Web MD A collection of articles, bulletin boards and and tools about medicine and health, created by professional journalists and medical experts.
Medical Matrix A free directory of selected Internet medical sites; requires online registration.
Medline Plus Health Information Up-to-date, quality health care information from the world's largest medical library, the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. This site offers extensive information about specific diseases and conditions and also has links to consumer health information from the National Institutes of Health, dictionaries, lists of hospitals and physicians, health information in Spanish and other languages, and clinical trials.
Online Health A to Z The Southeast Missouri Hospital's digital library provides a dictionary of searchable terms.
Virtual Hospital A digital health sciences library created in 1992 at the University of Iowa to help meet the information needs of health care providers and patients. The Virtual Hospital library contains hundreds of books and brochures for health care providers and patients.

Medical Errors & Patient Safety

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) sponsors, conducts and disseminates research to help people make better decisions about health care. The AHCPR is a Public Health Service agency in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
"Never events" is a list of preventable serious outcomes in a healthcare setting. The list was compiled by the National Quality Forum. They are defined as "adverse events that are serious, largely preventable, and of concern to both the public and healthcare providers for the purpose of public accountability".
Center For Justice & Democracy A non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt pt organization founded by consumer advocates that provides objective information concerning medical malpractice.

Misdiagnosis of Cancer or Infection

Oncolink -- University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center OncoLink was founded in 1994 by Penn cancer specialists to help cancer patients, families, health care professionals and the general public get free, accurate cancer-related information.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Brain Inury Association The national Brain Injury Association (BIA) web site, with extensive brain injury information and facts, along with links to state association chapters.
Centre for Neuro Skills Information, services and products relating to traumatic brain injury, brain injury recovery and post-acute rehabilitation.
Malignant Brain Tumors and Neuro-oncology Resources General Hospital Harvard Medical School site with information and links to other neurological resource sites.
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke A searchable site with information on selected neurological disorders.
Neurosurgery://On Call The official web site of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons
Traumatic Brain Injury Survival Guide An online book that introduces the basics about brain injury.

Catastrophic Injury

National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research A site that collects and reports death and permanent disability sports injury data that involve brain and/or spinal cord injuries. The purpose of the research and analysis is to recommend rule changes, safer coaching techniques, and improved equipment.

Construction Site Accidents & Occupational Injuries

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health A branch of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Institute conducts research on the full scope of occupational disease and injury.
New York State Labor Law § 240 New York State's Scaffold Law
New York State Labor Law § 241 New York State's Safe Place to Work Act
New York State Industrial Code - Rule 23 Provides for protection of workers engaged in construction, demolition and excavation operations.
OSHA Part 1926 Federal occupational safety and health regulations for construction
OSHA Part 1910 Federal occupational safety and health regulations for general industry

Legal

Search Engines

New York State Labor Law § 240. Scaffolding and other devices for use of employees. 1. All contractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, in the erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing of a building or structure shall furnish or erect, or cause to be furnished or erected for the performance of such labor, scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, ropes, and other devices which shall be so constructed, placed and operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed. No liability pursuant to this subdivision for the failure to provide protection to a person so employed shall be imposed on professional engineers as provided for in article one hundred forty-five of the education law, architects as provided for in article one hundred forty-seven of such law or landscape architects as provided for in article one hundred forty-eight of such law who do not direct or control the work for activities other than planning and design. This exception shall not diminish or extinguish any liability of professional engineers or architects or landscape architects arising under the common law or any other provision of law.

2. Scaffolding or staging more than twenty feet from the ground or floor, swung or suspended from an overhead support or erected with stationary supports, except scaffolding wholly within the interior of a building and covering the entire floor space of any room therein, shall have a safety rail of suitable material properly attached, bolted, braced or otherwise secured, rising at least thirty-four inches above the floor or main portions of such scaffolding or staging and extending along the entire length of the outside and the ends thereof, with only such openings as may be necessary for the delivery of materials. Such scaffolding or staging shall be so fastened as to prevent it from swaying from the building or structure.

3. All scaffolding shall be so constructed as to bear four times the maximum weight required to be dependent therefrom or placed thereon when in use.

(As of March 15, 2009)

New York State Labor Law § 241. Construction, excavation and demolition work. All contractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, when constructing or demolishing buildings or doing any excavating in connection therewith, shall comply with the following requirements:

1. If the floors are to be arched between the beams thereof, or if the floors or filling in between the floors are of fireproof material, the flooring or filling in shall be completed as the building progresses.

2. If the floors are not to be filled in between the beams with brick or other fireproof material, the underflooring shall be laid on each story as the building progresses.

3. If double floors are not to be used, the floor two stories immediately below the story where the work is being performed shall be kept planked over.

4. If the floor beams are of iron or steel, the entire tier of iron or steel beams on which the structural iron or steel work is being erected shall be thoroughly planked over, except spaces reasonably required for proper construction of the iron or steel work, for raising or lowering of materials or for stairways and elevator shafts designated by the plans and specifications.

5. If elevators, elevating machines or hod-hoisting apparatus are used in the course of construction, for the purpose of lifting materials, the shafts or openings in each floor and at each landing level shall be inclosed or fenced in on all sides by a barrier of suitable height, except on two sides which may be used for taking off and putting on materials, and those sides shall be guarded by an adjustable barrier not less than three nor more than four feet from the floor and not less than two feet from the edges of such shafts or openings.

6. All areas in which construction, excavation or demolition work is being performed shall be so constructed, shored, equipped, guarded, arranged, operated and conducted as to provide reasonable and adequate protection and safety to the persons employed therein or lawfully frequenting such places. The commissioner may make rules to carry into effect the provisions of this subdivision, and the owners and contractors and their agents for such work, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, shall comply therewith.

7. The commissioner may make rules to provide for the protection of workers in connection with the excavation work for the construction of buildings, the work of constructing or demolishing buildings and structures, and the guarding of dangerous machinery used in connection therewith, and the owners and contractors and their agents for such work, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, shall comply therewith.

8. The commissioner, as deemed necessary, shall promulgate rules designed for the purpose of providing for the reasonable and adequate protection and safety of persons passing by all areas, buildings or structures in which construction, excavation or demolition work is being performed, and the owners and contractors and their agents for such work, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, shall comply therewith. The provisions of this subdivision shall not apply to cities having a population of one million or more.

9. No liability for the non-compliance with any of the provisions of this section shall be imposed on professional engineers as provided for in article one hundred forty-five of the education law, architects as provided for in article one hundred forty-seven of such law or landscape architects as provided for in article one hundred forty-eight of such law who do not direct or control the work for activities other than planning and design. This exception shall not diminish or extinguish any liability of professional engineers, architects or landscape architects arising under the common law or any other provision of law.

10. Prior to advertising for bids or contracting for or commencing work on any demolition work on buildings covered under this section except agricultural buildings as defined in regulations promulgated by the commissioner and except buildings the construction of which was begun on or after January first, nineteen hundred seventy-four, all owners and their agents, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, shall conduct or cause to be conducted a survey to determine whether or not the building to be demolished contains asbestos or asbestos material as defined in section nine hundred one of this chapter. Such surveys shall be conducted in conformance with rules and regulations promulgated by the commissioner. Information derived from such survey shall be immediately transmitted to the commissioner and to the local governmental entity charged with issuing a permit for such demolition under applicable state or local laws or, if no such permit is required, to the town or city clerk. If such survey finds that a building to be demolished contains asbestos or asbestos material as defined by section nine hundred one of the chapter, no bids shall be advertised nor contracts awarded nor demolition work commenced by any owner or agent prior to completion of an asbestos remediation contract performed by a licensed asbestos contractor as defined by section nine hundred one of this chapter.

(As of March 15, 2009)