Bergen County Civil Trial and Probate Blog

New technology is constantly being introduced that provides faster and more up to date information. Hospitals and medical offices have started using new mobile devices, including smartphones and ipads, which increase efficiency and allow medical professionals to quickly access medical records, patient information and respond to emergencies. Yet these same devices can also create added distraction and result in "distracted doctoring."

Distracted medical professionals cannot provide the same quality of patient care. Even the minimal distraction caused by these devices may result in serious hospital errors. Further, personal use can be difficult to monitor during work hours.

How often should people be tested for cancer? The medical literature has been in flux in recent years on this question.

To be sure, failing to test often enough remains a problem. After all, failure to diagnose cancer is a common form of medical malpractice. Everyone knows that if cancer isn't diagnosed in time, the chances of treating it effectively dwindle rapidly - and sometimes disappear entirely.

In recent years, however, several studies have shown that, in some cases, it is also possible to test too frequently. That is because of problems that include false positives, intrusive testing procedures, and harmful side effects from treatment.

Recent polling results suggest that people's perceptions of the role of cancer screening tests are evolving along with the medical literature. Nearly one of every three Americans (31 percent) believes that cancer screening tests do not occur frequently enough. But 7 percent believe that testing is done too often.

The transition of medical records from paper files to electronic databases is well underway. Transmitting prescription requests electronically, for example, can help get beyond the old problem of deciphering a doctor's often illegible writing.

But more still needs to be done to avoid medication errors that can occur when a doctor prescribes drugs.

In one case that was reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer and other news outlets, a pregnant woman named Mareena Silva who needed an antibiotic to fight an infection was instead given a cell-fighting drug that was intended for a cancer patient. It is unclear from news reports how seriously this may have affected the fetus. But clearly giving anti-cell growth medication is a recipe for trouble when given to a pregnant woman because it can lead to birth defects and increase the risk of a miscarriage.

The cell-fighting drug was intended for a woman with a similar name, Maria Silva.

Medical professionals need to be a much better job of washing their hands. The failure to follow proper sanitary protocols is a common hospital error that leads to many infections - and those infections can be fatal.

Doctors' and nurses' hands aren't the only sources of possible infection, by any means. University of Iowa researchers recently presented data showing that hospital privacy curtains area a common source of bacteria that causes disease. The research team examined 43 curtains in 30 hospital rooms over a three-week period by taking twice-weekly swab cultures.

Fully 95 percent of the curtains tested in the study were contaminated. Even completely new curtains got that way within a week of being installed.

Dr. Michael Ohl presented the findings at a conference last week. "There is a growing recognition that the hospital environment plays an important role in the transmission of infections in the health care setting and it's clear that these (privacy curtains) are potentially important sites of contamination because they are frequently touched by patients and providers," he said.

Getting old can open up a Pandora's Box of potential issues. Some of them, such as orderly wealth transfer, can be planned for with the help of an elder law attorney. Others, such as avoiding becoming the victim of fraud or other foolish decisions, require constant vigilance.

In a recent case in California, Art Tenner, a 79-year-old man with a terminal illness, sank over $100,000 in savings into annuities sold by an unscrupulous insurance agent. The agent played on Art's fears that there wouldn't be enough money in his estate to pay for nursing home care for his wife. His wife didn't need this care yet, but she had Parkinson's disease and probably would one day.

The decision to buy the annuities turned out to be a costly one for Art. The transaction ended up costing him $11,000 in fees and penalties when he sought to withdraw the money early. As a result, he had to turn to his children to cover his daily living expenses.

Wrong-site surgery remains a major problem in New Jersey and across the country. Operating on the wrong part of the body - or even the wrong patient - still occurs about 40 times every week in the U.S. It's a figure that cries out for improvement.

The data comes from a respected healthcare reform group, the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare. Healthcare professionalism themselves know they need to do better to prevent surgical errors and other common medical mistakes.

The CEO of one professional organization, Linda Groah of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), recently discussed several ways that healthcare providers can try to reduce wrong-site surgery.

Not surprisingly, one of the main recommendations was to implement a checklist. "The use of a checklist actually identifies everything that needs to be done for the patient pre-operatively, including marking the side and site of the surgery," Groah said.

Naming a guardian for any minor children in the event of their parents' death is one of the most important aspects of creating an estate plan. As recommended by Sarah M. Johnson in an article published in the Wealth Strategies Journal, attorneys can help parents through this sometimes emotionally-difficult process in four key ways:

Explaining the Law

An estate-planning lawyer can explain to parents how the law affects their guardianship decision. In New Jersey, a judge does not have to appoint or approve of a nominated guardian. Instead, the parents' wills control who is appointed as the guardian of any minor children should both parents pass away.

Highlighting Factors to Consider

An attorney with experience in estate planning knows that different characteristics of potential guardians are important to different parents. But an attorney can also remind parents of other significant factors that they may not have considered, including:

• The child's age and preferences

• The willingness and ability of the potential guardian to raise the child

• The potential guardian's values, religion and child-raising philosophy

• The potential guardian's family circumstances

"Closed head injury" is a broad term with several synonyms. Another name for it is mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI). Another is post-concussion syndrome.

Whatever one calls it, the effects are serious and potentially life-changing. To call it "mid" is often misnomer. Whether the head injury occurred in an accident, due to a fall, or from some other cause, it can lead to distinct cognitive challenges, memory problems, and recurring pain. It also can result in unpredictable emotional and personality changes.

When an injury like this occurs, the effects on the injured person's family, particularly the spouse, can be profound as well. One such spouse, Lorraine Devon Wilke, recently shared her story in The Huffington Post.

Three years ago, Wilke's husband, Pete, an attorney, was stopped in his car at a crosswalk when a distracted driver rear-ended him. The impact of the collision caused extensive damage to the right frontal lobe of Pete's brain, resulting in a closed head injury.