Teressa Knapp Crawford is a registered nurse specializing in long-term care. Nurse Crawford combines her extensive nursing experience with a passion for patient advocacy and end-of-life care. Teressa has dedicated her life to serving vulnerable populations, particularly in long-term care and assisted living settings. She continues to make significant contributions as a legal nurse consultant, specializing in elder care.
Teressa’s career spans over three decades, beginning in 1992 when she earned her nursing degree. Her journey in healthcare started as a Med-Surg RN and soon transitioned to long-term care. From the outset, Teressa demonstrated a deep commitment to patient care, quickly gaining recognition for her exceptional attention to detail and patient advocacy.
Her experience expanded through various nursing roles in long-term care, including Medicare Case Manager/Coordinator, Director of Nursing, and Chief Nursing Officer. These positions allowed Teressa to work closely with patients transitioning from hospital to rehabilitation centers, ensuring continuity of care and acting as a crucial liaison between medical professionals, patients, and their families. This role proved to be a natural fit for Teressa, aligning her skills in care coordination and patient advocacy.
Teressa also served as Risk Management Consultant for Malpractice Liability/Long Term Care for 9 years. In this role, Nurse Crawford completed monthly on-site audits of long term care facilities, focused on programs most likely to lead to malpractice litigation, created written report of findings, presented findings to long-term care facility management, participated in monthly insurance meetings with malpractice liability companies to review ‘at risk’ facilities, assisted in start-up and ongoing strategic refining of the risk management model, and was the preceptor to new nurse managers. This near decade of experience assessing nursing home errors across multiple facilities affords Nurse Crawford unrivaled experience in the nursing home negligence field.
Teressa has served as an RN Manager at Assisted Living and Memory Care Facilities. She has also served in hospice care, focusing on end-of-life care. In these capacities, she continued to leverage her extensive knowledge of elder care, regulatory standards, and risk management to ensure that patients received compassionate, effective care tailored to their unique needs.
Over her 33+ year career, Teressa has implemented care programs adhering to Federal CMS nursing home guidelines and collaborated with healthcare teams to improve resident outcomes. This experience further solidified her expertise in nursing home regulatory compliance, quality assurance, and family education. Teressa has managed nursing programs, audited resident medical records, and led initiatives to enhance family satisfaction with skilled nursing care services. Her ability to identify risk areas and implement corrective measures underscored her strategic thinking and commitment to patient-centered care.
In 2017, Teressa pursued further specialization in Legal Nurse Consulting, completing a program at the University of Central Florida. This certification enabled her to extend her advocacy efforts, providing critical assessment of medical records in cases involving malpractice litigation. Through her work as a Legal Nurse Consultant, she develops comprehensive reports, documents medical event chronology, and provides expert analysis that plays a key role in case resolutions.
Teressa’s career is characterized by her unwavering dedication to elder care, expertise in legal nurse consulting, and commitment to continuous learning. She is well-versed in CMS regulatory standards, nursing home staffing requirements, negligence-related injury inside long-term care and related facilities, and is adept at extracting critical data from medical records. Her ability to communicate effectively with patients, families, and healthcare providers has positioned her as a trusted advocate and a respected leader in the skilled nursing field.
Beyond her professional accomplishments, Teressa is driven by a genuine passion for improving the quality of life for elderly patients. She believes that patient advocacy is not only a responsibility but a calling—one that requires empathy, diligence, and unwavering integrity. As she continues her work, Teressa remains committed to advancing her expertise and advocating for the rights and well-being of elderly patients, ensuring that they receive the care, respect, and dignity they deserve.
