NP-Led Medical Record Analysis for Plaintiff Attorneys

Legal Nurse Consulting for Plaintiff Attorneys

TRACE reconstructs the clinical decision chain, when each condition became recognizable, and the interval before anyone acted

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Dual Board Certified — AGNP-BC · PMHNP-BC

Nurse Practitioner Since 2016 · In Healthcare Since 2007

Deterioration Is Usually Documented Before Anyone Responds

A condition becomes recognizable at a specific point in a medical record —

a value that returned, a trend that reversed, a finding that was charted. Somewhere later, someone acts.

The clinical literature on failure to rescue establishes that outcomes correlate with the time between those two points. That interval is almost never stated anywhere in the chart. It has to be reconstructed.

Reconstructing it is what TRACE does.

The TRACE Method

T — Timeline

Reconstruct the clinical sequence from the record, with the significance of each entry stated.

R — Recognition

Identify the point at which each condition became recognizable from the documentation available at the time.

A — Action

Identify when responsive action occurred — and what the record shows in between.

C — Causation

Map the clinical relationship between the interval and the outcome, and identify what requires physician expert opinion.

E — Evidence

Identify what the record is missing, and which of it can still be obtained.

The Recognition-to-Action Interval

The basis for each recognition point is stated in every report. TRACE offers no opinion on the legal significance of any interval.

Every TRACE engagement reports a specific clinical finding: the elapsed time between the point at which a condition was recognizable from the documented record, and the point at which anyone responded.

In one illustrative post-operative sepsis matter, that interval was nine hours — measured from an abnormal lactate result to the first antimicrobial dose. The physiologic inflection that preceded it went unremarked for twelve.

Determining when something became recognizable requires knowing what a competent clinician should have seen with the information then available. That is a clinical judgment, and it is the reason TRACE exists.

*The Recognition-to-Action Interval is TRACE's analytical convention, not a validated clinical instrument. The basis for each recognition point is stated in every report. TRACE offers no opinion on the legal significance of any interval.

Verify Everything

Board Certification

AGNP-BC and PMHNP-BC — verifiable through the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the American Nurses Credentialing Center

Licensure

Active NP licensure in North Carolina, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York

Practice History

EMT 2007 · LPN 2009 · RN 2011 · NP 2016 — every credential independently verifiable

Entity

TRACE Legal Nurse Consulting, PLLC — registered with the NC Secretary of State

Coverage

Professional liability insurance in force

Confidentiality

BAA available on request; records encrypted at rest and in transit

Practice areas

Built for the Cases That Turn on Clinical Detail

Medical Malpractice

Failure to rescue, diagnostic error, surgical complications, medication errors, and long-term care negligence.

Custodial Death & Correctional Healthcare

Withdrawal deaths in custody, intake screening failures, medication continuity, and observation-level decisions. The clinical record in deliberate indifference claims, analyzed by a psychiatric nurse practitioner — a combination almost no legal nurse consultant can offer.

Personal Injury

Injury-to-mechanism correlation, pre-existing condition analysis, treatment necessity, and defense IME rebuttal.

Mass Tort Screening

Criteria-based claimant screening at volume, with consistent tiering and fixed per-file pricing.

The NP difference

RN-Level Review

Summarizes what the medical record documents
Builds a chronology from charted events
Identifies the nursing standard of care
Flags deviations from protocol

NP-Level Review — TRACE

Evaluates the diagnostic reasoning behind each clinical decision
Assesses prescribing, dosing, and medication management
Interprets provider-level decisions, not only nursing ones
Applies psychiatric and behavioral health analysis at the board-certified level
Identifies the clinical questions your retained expert needs answered

How an Engagement Runs

Intake & Conflict Check

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

Preliminary Review & Scope

Send the matter. TRACE runs a conflict check and confirms availability within one business day — before any records change hands.

Preliminary Review & Scope

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

Preliminary Review & Scope

A scoping review establishes record volume and complexity, followed by a written fixed-fee proposal. No work begins until you approve it.

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

You receive analysis built for use — chronologies, standard of care findings, causation analysis, and the questions your retained expert needs answered.

Investment

Case screenings start at $850. Full merit reviews, with clinical chronology, start at $6,000 — scoped to record volume and case complexity.

Every fee is fixed and quoted in writing before work begins. Your screening fee is credited in full toward a merit review if you proceed within 60 days.

Screenings are delivered in 3–5 business days. Full reviews in 7–14 business days from receipt of a complete record set. Rush scheduling is available.

Full engagement details and fees

Meet the Founder

Sabrina Ritchie, AGNP-BC, PMHNP-BC

EMT in 2007.

LPN in 2009.

RN in 2011.

Nurse practitioner since 2016

— a decade carrying independent diagnostic responsibility, in critical care, hospitalist medicine, addiction medicine, and integrative mental health.

Dual board certification allows TRACE to evaluate both the physical and the psychiatric records.

What's the difference between an LNC and an expert witness?

A legal nurse consultant works as a consulting expert — the analysis is generally protected as work product, and the consultant does not testify. An expert witness is designated, disclosed, and subject to deposition. TRACE serves as a consulting expert only, which strengthens your case without creating discoverable testimony or a designated witness.

How long does a review take?

Case screenings are typically delivered in 3–5 business days. Full case reviews are delivered in 7–14 business days of receiving a complete record set. Rush review is available for matters with expedited timelines.

How do you handle confidentiality and conflicts?

Every inquiry receives a conflict check within one business day, before any records are requested or reviewed. All records are handled under HIPAA-secure protocols, stored encrypted, and returned or destroyed at your direction at the close of the engagement.

How much does a case review cost?

TRACE quotes a fixed fee before work begins, scoped to record volume and case complexity. Case screenings start at $850. Full case reviews start at $6,000. You will never receive an open-ended hourly invoice.

What does it cost to find out whether TRACE is useful to my firm?

Nothing, and you don't have to send a record to find out. Read the published sample case review — it's a complete engagement on a fictional post-operative sepsis matter, in the exact format a full review produces. If the analysis is what your cases need, you'll know inside ten minutes. If you'd rather talk it through against a live matter, the twenty-minute triage call is free and creates no conflict.

TRACE resources are professional references intended to support the judgment of qualified users. They do not constitute legal or medical advice, do not assess the merit or value of any matter, and are not a substitute for independent clinical or legal analysis of a specific case. Whether a given record is discoverable in your jurisdiction is a legal question for counsel.

TRACE Legal Nurse Consulting, PLLC

Advanced Practice Clinical Analysis for Litigation

600 S Tryon St, 18th Floor, Charlotte, NC 28202

sabrina@tracelnc.com • tracelnc.com

Legal Nurse Consulting for Plaintiff Attorneys

Dual Board Certified — AGNP-BC · PMHNP-BC

Nurse Practitioner Since 2016 · In Healthcare Since 2007

Deterioration Is Usually Documented Before Anyone Responds

A condition becomes recognizable at a specific point in a medical record —

The TRACE Method

T — Timeline

R — Recognition

A — Action

C — Causation

E — Evidence

The Recognition-to-Action Interval

The basis for each recognition point is stated in every report. TRACE offers no opinion on the legal significance of any interval.

Verify Everything

Board Certification

Licensure

Practice History

Entity

Coverage

Confidentiality

Practice areas

Built for the Cases That Turn on Clinical Detail

Medical Malpractice

Custodial Death & Correctional Healthcare

Personal Injury

Mass Tort Screening

The NP difference

RN-Level Review

NP-Level Review — TRACE

How an Engagement Runs

Intake & Conflict Check

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

Preliminary Review & Scope

Preliminary Review & Scope

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

Preliminary Review & Scope

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

Litigation-Ready Deliverables

Investment

Meet the Founder

Sabrina Ritchie, AGNP-BC, PMHNP-BC

Common Questions from Attorneys

What's the difference between an LNC and an expert witness?

How long does a review take?

How do you handle confidentiality and conflicts?

How much does a case review cost?

What does it cost to find out whether TRACE is useful to my firm?

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