Do the Elderly Need to be Protected From Their Doctors?

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Patients often make the mistake of believing they can place their full confidence and trust in the skill and knowledge of their medical providers, many times not realizing that neglect or medical malpractice can be fairly common, especially among the elderly.

A study published online last May in the medical journal Injury Prevention found that one in five Medicare patients suffered an injury from medical treatment not related to their underlying condition. The study drew attention to outpatient care, citing that most of the malpractice happened in doctors’ offices, clinics, surgery centers and nursing homes, with one-third occurring in hospitals.

Researchers noted that the more delicate the health of the patient, the more likely it was that he or she would experience a medical injury during treatment. They found that elderly patients were often more vulnerable to being given the wrong medications or receiving treatments that could induce allergic reactions or additional complications, adding to their previously existing underlying illnesses or problems.

The study also drew attention to complications that go hand-in-hand with medical malpractice–death rates are estimated to double when additional injuries occur with the elderly, along with increased health care costs due to extended and comprehensive follow-up treatment.

The focus of this study is to recognize the cause of unnecessary medical injuries that elderly patients are experiencing. It is also a wake-up call for members of the health care profession on the need to be educated in geriatric medicine, and understand that the elderly, because they are more vulnerable than healthy young adults, need a greater degree of care and protection when receiving medical treatment.

Trucking Accidents: a Thing of the Past?

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Commercial truck drivers are often being pushed to their physical limits and beyond to meet competitive and highly demanding schedules on the road. A few months ago we saw the devastating consequences when a tired tractor-trailer driver tragically injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed another passenger when he fell asleep at the wheel.

When it comes to the safety of you or your loved ones, a newly proposed law may make tired truckers and trucking accidents a thing of the past.

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) announced in March a new proposal that would mandate electronic logging devices (ELDs) in commercial vehicles.

Electronic logging devices will make it harder for drivers and trucking companies to distort hours spent on the road, which is currently kept by paper logs in most trucks and is even referred to by some as “comic books” because they can be easily falsified.

ELDs will integrate with commercial vehicle engines to determine speed, motion, miles and hours driven. ELDs will also be tamper-proof and will allow local law enforcement officials to link with commercial vehicles to determine the operation of these vehicles.

The American Trucking Association is at the forefront of welcoming the newly mandated changes in commercial transportation and believes it will greatly improve the safety of the public and the drivers as the logging of driving time can no longer be falsified. Large numbers of companies have already made the switch from paper to electronic logging.

The newly mandated ELDs will also reduce harassment of commercial drivers by making it easier to penalize employers who impose overly aggressive and demanding schedules or ill-timed intrusions of drivers’ rest or sleep schedules.

The new rule is expected to take effect in 2016.


Texting While Driving–A Risky Gamble

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Gambling is part of the human condition. People flock to Las Vegas to risk losing a small amount of money to have a chance at winning big. Many times, the end result is losing big, while winning nothing.

This same risk behavior analysis occurs when people text while driving. Most who text while driving believe that they can do so safely—after all, they’ve done it before and nothing bad happened. This type of gambling, even if one has gotten away with it before, is far riskier than losing money in Las Vegas.

When we text while driving, in the two or more seconds of focusing our attention on the cell phone instead of the road, we are gambling that something unexpected will not happen.

We are gambling that a small child will not at that moment dart across the street chasing a ball.

We are gambling that the large van in front of us, which had been going 40 miles per hour, is not going to suddenly veer off into the left turn bay, immediately exposing us to a stopped row of cars.

We are gambling that the green light we were approaching isn’t going to turn yellow the instant we train our eyes on our cell phone, leaving us in a position to run a red light at the intersection.

We are gambling that the mother and her two small children who were not very noticeable when they started walking across the unmarked crosswalk will be able to see that we are not being safe drivers and will somehow avoid a catastrophe for herself and her children.

We are also gambling that the driver next to us is going to be paying attention to the road, and not to a cell phone, and is going to avoid causing a sudden emergency to which we would be unable to respond because of our momentary focus on texting.

Texting While Driving Illegal in Tucson

Yes, laws across the country are changing, so that texting, or even reading a text, will be illegal. On April 1, 2012, a new ordinance will take effect in Tucson, Arizona, that will make it illegal to text or read a text while driving.

However, we should avoid texting while driving not only because of the new law, but also because eventually, such gambling can cause us to lose everything. The safest bet while driving is to expect the unexpected, and to focus exclusively on driving.