Alice celebrates 10 years of opportunities and success at TLA
A decade is a long time in the medicolegal world – just ask Alice Jones who is celebrating ten years at TLA during which she has been a key part of the company’s rapid growth. Here we find out more about her life as a Senior Case Manager.
Why did you choose to go into the medicolegal field?
I was initially interested in the industry and the complexities and challenges of the work involved. Also, my skill set is suitable for case management work and associated tasks.
Describe how your career developed to the present day
I previously worked as a Regional Administrator for an agricultural retail company and I have progressed with TLA to become a Senior Case Manager and Head of the Trauma and Orthopaedics Division.
What are the key responsibilities in your position?
I oversee all trauma and orthopaedic instructions and nominations and manage more than 150 trauma and orthopaedic experts as well as our team.
Describe a typical day
Dealing with emails, prioritising workflows, ensuring deadlines are met, corresponding and communicating with medical experts and solicitors, etc.
Who / what have been the biggest influences on your career?
My career has been influenced by a combination of my strong professional mentors and the complexities of the cases I manage.
What has been your best decision?
Choosing to specialise in medicolegal case management. I enjoy working with our medical experts and legal teams for both personal injury and clinical negligence cases. I am interested in both the medical injuries and the legal scrutiny challenges that are presented.
What has been your most difficult / challenging time?
Our most challenging time was in lockdown during the Covid epidemic. At the time we postponed all trauma and orthopaedic appointments and some experts held appointments remotely.
It presented huge challenges for our medical experts for both their medicolegal reporting and their NHS duties. Some of our trauma and orthopaedic experts were diverted to Covid wards making it a very demanding time.
Our TLA team worked from home which caused its own difficulties and we were keen to return to the office as soon as possible. TLA was very supportive during this time.
The positive outcome, however, was that this led to the digitalisation of records and documentation from both hospitals and the legal sector which gave us a huge step forward in how we work today.
What changes have you seen in the TLA business over the last decade?
TLA has quadrupled in size over the past 10 years. There has been a huge growth in instructions and our medical expert base and simultaneously we have seen a rise in the complexity of cases as well as the volume of instructions. However, we are proud of the continuity and retention of clients who we take pleasure in working with.
What changes have you seen in the medicolegal industry over the last decade?
There has been greater scrutiny of expert reports leading to a higher standard of medical experts and reporting.
We have also seen an increase in the requirement for care of claimants’ medical needs and rehabilitation both during and after their claims. This led to us setting up our partner company, 3D Health UK, in 2017 to facilitate diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation for patients.
What are the biggest challenges facing TLA or the wider industry today?
Clinical negligence cases have increased by more than 35% in the last decade. The challenge lies in the NHS’s ability to learn from its mistakes and the Government’s ability to put support structures in place.
For example, despite sepsis campaigns, NHS Resolution records sepsis as one of the top three causes for medical negligence claims against GPs with failures to diagnose or treat contributing to 81% of cases examined.
Claims often stem from a failure to follow protocol, failure to monitor or document vital signs and failures by staff to escalate care, prompting the introduction of the Martha's Rule patient safety initiative to detect early deterioration in patients and ensure their concerns and those of families, carers and staff are listened to and acted upon.
How do you see TLA developing over the next five years?
We are very involved in the academic and scientific aspects of our experts’ careers. Medicolegal reporting is intrinsically linked with academic research and scientific meetings where new research and data is exhibited so we monitor that closely.
We keep a keen eye on improvements with technology such as artificial intelligence and its particular use in the medicolegal field and we are also focused on bringing on board the next generation of medical experts.
Sponsorship of events such as those run by the British Limb Reconstruction Society (BLRS) is an area we want to continue to develop with other organisations. For example, some of our medicolegal experts are speaking at a BLRS event next month.
Do you have a good work/life balance?
I have a brilliant work/life balance and am lucky to work with such a fantastic team at TLA. As we are based in rural Oxfordshire, we are able to watch the wildlife and sheep from our office windows.
I am also able to bring my dog, Eddie into the office every day and he loves life at TLA, going desk to desk for biscuits, snacks and cuddles! We also have lovely team events, including pub lunches, away days, events and award dinners.
Outside of the office, I enjoy country life. I also love horse riding, dog walking, skiing and holidays.