Country-western singer, Johnny Paycheck, sang a song of revenge for all of us when he belted out the song, “Take This Job and Shove It,” back in 1977.

But as much as it can be fun to think about, not everyone can really just quit whenever they feel like it when they think they’ve had enough.

That, though is just what JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater did early last week when he allegedly was upset after an airline passenger on his flight refused to follow crew instructions, according to a story in The New York Times.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/travelinglight

So what did he do? Apparently, when a passenger got up to get her luggage from an overhead compartment before the plane stopped taxiing, he got into a verbal altercation, was struck in the head by her bag and the situation boiled over.

According to the story, he asked for an apology, didn’t get it, and then allegedly cursed the woman out over the plane’s public address system. To top it off, he then allegedly opened an aircraft door, activated an escape chute, and evacuated the plane. He was later arrested by police at his home.

And in the end, some other passengers apparently didn’t agree with Slater’s account of the incident, according to an Associated Press story in The Philadelphia Inquirer.  At least one passenger called Slater “rude” and labeled his behavior as “inappropriate” in reaction to the situation that unfolded on the plane.

Now the first thing that comes to mind here at MyPhillyLawyer is that there are some jobs that absolutely, positively leave no room for such actions. Those kinds of jobs include anything where the safety of the public is at stake. That would certainly include airline crews, police, fire and ambulance personnel, and any other jobs where protecting the public is a first priority.

In this case, Slater was flat out wrong from a practical and safety point-of-view. As an airline flight attendant, he had a legal and ethical obligation to maintain his cool, no matter what situation transpired with a passenger. The safety of every other passenger on the JetBlue flight was put into a bad situation due to his behavior. That’s not acceptable, no matter what a passenger does to be difficult.

By taking such an action and leaving the plane, Slater essentially gave up his job. That’s something to think about when, as in most states across the U.S., you are an “at-will” employee. That means that you are hired and kept on at the will of your employer and that you can be fired at any time if they don’t want to keep you employed. That’s what most workers live by, unless they are under contract or have a collective bargaining agreement. Contracts or labor agreements can provide special rights to protect you.

For Slater and all of us, that means an “at-will” employee can be fired for any reason, as long as it’s not discriminatory. In his case, we still haven’t heard if he is protected by any sort of employment contract.

This case should make us all think carefully if we ever consider taking such a drastic step as quitting a job on the spot. There are legal ramifications from such an action, and in Slater’s case, public safety ramifications as well.

If you are having problems in your workplace, don’t act rashly. Talk to an attorney and find out about your legal rights and responsibilities before you take an action that might be detrimental.

It may be emotionally purging to tell your employer to “Take This Job and Shove it,” but the law may not be on your side if you do.

If you do, think again.

Take Progressive Insurance for example.

They recently proposed a plan in Pennsylvania where they’d offer you a 30% discount on your auto insurance – if you install a wireless monitoring device in your vehicle that would let them keep track of your driving so they can be sure that you are safely operating your vehicle.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/KLH49

The proposal, which was outlined in a story last week in The Philadelphia Inquirer, has apparently been temporarily withdrawn, according to the paper, but it appears that it could resurface once Progressive makes some changes to the idea.

Whatever happens from Progressive’s end – or if such ideas are proposed by additional insurance companies – this is a very bad idea for motorists.

How so?

Well, it’s essentially like driving with a police officer sitting right next to you in the passenger seat, even when you are a careful, law-abiding driver.  Under the plan, your friendly, neighborhood insurance company will now serve as witness, judge and jury any time you make a mistake or do something they don’t approve of while you are driving.

And how will they repay you?

Let’s see – by raising your rates, perhaps canceling your insurance and who knows what else? Just imagine the possibilities.

At MyPhillyLawyer, we can imagine the possibilities and they’re not too consumer-friendly.  In fact, this is a Big Brother invasion of privacy at its core.

It’s amazing that Progressive even came up with such an invasive idea, and even more incredible that they actually thought that consumers would find it appealing.

With a 30%  “discount”  as bait, we think an idea like this is an excuse for Progressive to find more reasons to charge higher rates to drivers who will let them track their driving habits.

That’s outrageous, and it’s something you don’t want to allow them to do in your car.

Even more scary – what if you’ve done nothing wrong, but they believe you’ve done something worth penalizing you for in the end, based on the readings from the device in your car or truck?

Good luck with that.

According to the Inquirer story, Progressive’s so-called “MyRate” plan gives drivers discounts of up to 30%  “if they drive fewer miles, stay off the roads during the accident-prone hours after midnight, and avoid hard braking.”  Such plans are already being offered in New Jersey and 19 other states, according to the story.  Those kinds of driving habits are monitored by Progressive to decide whether you are a safe operator and are worthy of lower rates.

A Progressive spokesman told the Inquirer that the device that’s installed in a vehicle doesn’t have GPS but that it “can measure acceleration forces, and can use speed and time data to derive ‘rates of acceleration and braking,’” according to the story. On the other hand, another Progressive spokesperson said that while the wireless devices can compute such information, that the company won’t use it for judging an operator’s driving.

Right. That’s easy for them to say, but if they do decide to use the information in the future, the affected driver is the one holding the bill.

And what if you brake hard to avoid a pending collision that would have been someone else’s fault?  Now you are the one who can be penalized because you braked hard to avoid such a crash?

That’s ridiculous.

In a 17-page state filing that describes the proposal, Progressive said it won’t invoke surcharges on Pennsylvania drivers  “for habits it considers bad,”  based on the information that is collected by the monitors, according to the Inquirer.

Sorry, but that is a huge leap of faith.

They want us to actually believe that they’re looking to start collecting this kind of information and then they promise they’re not potentially going to use it against you later?

That’s very hard to believe, no matter what the insurance company is saying.

Do they think that drivers are stupid?

So far, about 25% of Progressive’s eligible drivers in states that have the program have enrolled, for a total of about 100,000 drivers, according to the Inquirer story.

But at MyPhillyLawyer, we say don’t fall for all the promises and glitz.

Instead, we suggest that you pass on such programs because no matter what a big insurance company is telling you, they’ll find some way to ultimately hurt you through your participation.

And you don’t need to make it any easier for them to raise your rates, cancel your policy or make your life more difficult.

That’s not worth any kind of discount at all.

Protect your rights and protect yourself.

Let’s keep the eyes and ears of the insurance companies out of our motor vehicles.

The duck boat – half-boat, half-on-road-vehicle – had entered the river to take the tourists on a cruise but its engine began giving off a burning smell and was shut off, immobilizing the 30-foot-long watercraft, according to a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

While the duck boat sat in the water, unable to get moving under its own power while carrying 35 passengers and several crew members, radio messages were sent to seek help, according to the paper. A short time later, a tugboat pulling a city-owned barge came down the river and the barge ran over top the duck boat, spilling the passengers and crew into the water.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/twilightproductions

Investigations by police and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are continuing but last week’s crash, in which two young visitors from Hungary drowned, is another stark reminder of the need for safe operations and vigilance aboard all watercraft. The accident happened in broad daylight in perfect weather when the duck boat was run over by the barge, according to The Inquirer. Boating accidents shouldn’t happen in such conditions, but they can happen anytime.

Investigators will look at a myriad of facts and conditions surrounding the crash, including the mechanical problems of the duck boat, the operation and navigation of the barge, the use and availability of life jackets for passengers on board the duck boat, the conduct of the crews on both watercraft and many other details.

According to statistics tallied by the U.S. Coast Guard, there were 4,789 recreational boating accidents that involved 709 deaths in the U.S. in 2008 – the last year that full records are available.  More than two-thirds of those victims drowned and 90% of the victims were not wearing life jackets, according to the Coast Guard.

The duck boat crash can serve as a great example to remind us all of what to do if we are ever involved in a tragedy like this on the water.

Be sure to take photographs with a cell phone camera if you can to illustrate the accident scene. If photos are not possible, create simple drawings of the accident on paper and preserve them as personal evidence.

Don’t make any statements or sign any documents with insurance companies or anyone else after the incident to protect your rights.

If you are injured, be sure to seek medical attention so your injuries and pain and suffering can be fully documented.

And be sure to quickly call MyPhillyLawyer to go over your case to review your claims and legal standing in regard to any watercraft accident.

Accidents can happen anywhere, on the roads, on the water, in the air and on public or private property. Preserving your rights and claims is critical following an accident, so be sure to take steps to protect yourself.

When losing isn’t an option, remember to call MyPhillyLawyer.com.

Drunk drivers, on average, cause the death of another person every 45 minutes in the U.S., according to the group, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

So, of course, shouldn’t we make it easier to buy alcoholic beverages so that more people can imbibe and operate a motor vehicle while they are impaired?

That’s apparently the thinking of those brilliant folks at the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), which recently opened two refrigerated test kiosks in the Harrisburg area last month that dispense wine from PLCB vending machines located inside grocery stores,  according to a story Monday in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/AndrewJohnson

You heard us right – from vending machines. No bartender or on-the-scene human intervention required. The customer makes a selection from behind locked glass doors and uses touchscreen menus to make purchases, the story said. To get the wine, you have to scan your driver’s license and a credit or debit card, then you have to breathe into a breath-test machine on the front of the kiosk that checks your blood-alcohol content (BAC). Anyone with a BAC reading greater than 0.02% can’t make a purchase. If you are under the limit, then buy away!

The whole transaction  will allegedly be monitored via closed-circuit TV remotely by a PLCB employee, according to a press release issued by the agency.  “A Liquor Control Board employee will monitor each transaction from a remote location and confirm that the video of the purchaser matches the purchaser’s ID.”  The machines will only be operational from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

Well that all makes us feel more secure.

“On the whole, the program has been very successful, far beyond our expectations,” liquor board chairman Patrick J. “P.J.” Stapleton 3d told the Inquirer. About 1,400 bottles of wine, priced from $6 to $23 a bottle, were sold in the first two weeks of the test program, according to the story. The PLCB estimates that some 100 of these kiosks could eventually be deployed in supermarkets within the commonwealth’s borders.

That’s just fabulous.

No longer is it enough that we have legal State Stores and beer outlets across Pennsylvania where you can buy alcoholic beverages.

Now we have to follow the lead of other states and allow the sale of alcoholic beverages in grocery stores because, damn it, we just can’t get enough alcohol at the spur of the moment wherever we are.

This is lawmaking at its most stupid.

Yes, it may not be as convenient to have to purchase alcoholic beverages within the fixed hours and through the fixed locations of State Stores and beer distributors here, but such is life. The present system does at least give us a fighting chance to better control and ultimately stop the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors and people who might already be drinking or drunk.

Critics of the State Store system have been complaining for years that the hours are inconvenient, that the selections of wines and liquors aren’t up to snuff and that the prices are more expensive compared to private liquor stores in other states. Those complaints have led to many changes in State Stores here in Pennsylvania, from wider selections of wines to Sunday hours in some locations.

Fine, some improvements for the sake of convenience were made.

But that doesn’t mean we have to keep making changes to make it easier and easier to buy booze and wine across our Commonwealth.

Drinking and driving kills people.

Making alcoholic beverages easier to obtain around the clock is not going to help lower that death toll.

Pennsylvania doesn’t need wine kiosks where people can buy alcohol with little more than a credit card, driver’s license and a breath into a machine.

This is a bad idea and could ultimately be a nightmare to enforce.

What about the drunk who buys the booze from the machine, but has a sober pal blow into the BAC mechanism? That’s not possible, says the PLCB?  Right, we buy that.

Without a human being there to prevent such a sale, anything can happen.

At least with a clerk present in a State Store, we have a fighting chance to keep drunks off the road.

At MyPhillyLawyer, where we represent people every week who are tragic victims of horrific accidents and injuries caused by drunk drivers, we say an emphatic “NO” to this wine kiosk trial.

Alcohol is prevalent enough in our society.

We don’t have to keep making it easier to get.

Well, here’s some sobering news: what you say on Facebook or any of the other sites could some day come back to haunt you in a legal proceeding from a divorce case to an accident investigation to a workplace injury settlement.

How so?

Well, it seems that attorneys across the nation are finding that people’s Facebook profiles often offer up lots of fascinating information about their personal lives.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/DNY59

“Forgot to de-friend your wife on Facebook while posting vacation shots of your mistress? Her divorce lawyer will be thrilled,” according to an Associated Press story posted online this week about how divorce lawyers are using personal tidbits found online as part of their cases against estranged spouses. “Oversharing on social networks has led to an overabundance of evidence in divorce cases,” the story continued.  “The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers says 81% of its members have used or faced evidence plucked from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites, including YouTube and LinkedIn, over the last five years.”

You have been warned.

But it’s not just divorce cases.

This can happen in all kinds of legal cases.

Let’s say you have a workplace injury and then are home recovering and getting medical treatment. Well, you’d better not be posting photos of your Italy vacation or your visit to a big local amusement park.

Somebody, we can assure you, is watching.

Privacy online is a continuously evolving issue nowadays.

And if you’re not thinking about it as a serious concern yet, it’s about time that you start thinking about how your online presence can affect your life in ways you never imagined.

It’s not just potential impacts involving legal cases.

It also involves potential employers if you are seeking a new job. You can bet they are out there online “Googling” your name and seeing what they come up with about you. Are you a risky hire? Are there embarrassing or negative things that will torpedo your job chances? It’s all out there for others to see.

There are, however, steps you can take to better protect your online privacy.

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation offers its top 12 tips to protect your online privacy, which includes:

*Do not reveal personal information inadvertently. Be careful what you post.

*Don’t reveal personal details to strangers or just-met “friends”.  That means leaving out such things as the year of your birth because it can more readily identify you and help identity thieves.

*Remember that YOU decide what information about yourself to reveal, when, why, and to whom.

What’s important to remember is that you ultimately are responsible for the personal information that you place up on social networking Web sites like Facebook.

Be sure that you carefully go through every step of the privacy settings so that you can better protect yourself from divulging information and details that you want to remain private.

Often the default privacy settings on such sites are not very private.  That means that you need to go step-by-step to confirm that they are protecting you and your reputation so that things don’t come back to haunt you.

More and more today, legal cases are involving evidence and discovery garnered from social media Web sites such as Facebook, according to a story last month in The Washington Post. In a case involving two brothers who were badly burned while making repairs in a Wal-Mart store, the defense perused through almost three years of Facebook and MySpace posts to bolster its arguments, the story reported. “David Hersh, the attorney who represented the [men], said such subpoenas have become standard practice in litigation and are ‘meant to discover information that would be embarrassing or might be used adversely even if it has nothing to do with the claim,’” the story said.

“Eben Moglen, a Columbia University law professor and director of Software Freedom Law Center, calls Facebook ‘one big database of hundreds of millions of people containing the kind of information far beyond what the secret police in 20th-century totalitarian regimes had,’” according to the Post.

What this all means is you have to be careful about what you post and what you allow others to post about you.

Your reputation is important to you and you can be hurt faster than you can say  “I’m not worried.”

Find out all you can about protecting your privacy online by reading up on the subject online at Web sites including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Democracy & Technology.

This is not child’s play.

This is serious stuff and can and will affect you when you least expect it.

Protect yourself now, before it’s too late.

Better to act now than have a future legal case or job offer or other important life event go corkscrewing into the ground in a crash of epic proportions if your personal information is ever used against you.

Life does come at you fast, and it can be even faster and potentially more damaging online.

Don’t be a victim.

If you need legal advice after something like this has already happened to you, be sure to talk with your attorney.

Have fun online, but don’t forget to be careful.

You’re the only one truly watching out for you.

Remember that each time you post something.

Only now are legal settlements nearing for many of the first responders who were injured when they dove into carnage of the World Trade Center towers that day and in the months to follow, recovering the remains of the almost 3,000 victims of the tragedy.

Finally, after a seven-year-long legal fight, a federal judge in New York last week approved a settlement deal, according to a story in The New York Times. Now, at least 95 percent of the 10,000 affected workers, which includes firefighters, police officers, building janitors and volunteers, must agree to the settlement deal by Sept. 30 for it to be finalized, according to the story.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/alancrosthwaite

This case spotlights the long legal road that plaintiffs often have to follow in such incidents.

It’s also a great reminder that if you are involved in a legal case where you suffer injuries and monetary losses that it’s imperative for your rights to be represented by a legal team that has your interests at heart.

Whether you suffer from injuries in the workplace, on a cruise ship, in a motor vehicle accident, a train, plane or bus crash, due to medical malpractice or any other kind of injury, you need to be sure that you get the best legal advice and representation that you can find.

The right attorney can help you minimize your mental anguish as your case is pursued through the legal system.

You want to work with an attorney who keeps you informed about your case every single step of the way.

You want to work with a lawyer who tells you every detail about the status of your case, from discussions with the defendants to settlement offers, medical reports and every other facet of your situation.

You want a legal team which you can trust and confide in and openly discuss your case and its status, whenever you need to talk.

And you certainly want to have easy access to discuss your case on your own schedule, with a lawyer who is there to listen and support you.

At MyPhillyLawyer, that is our pledge to you.

We will stand by you as long as it takes, and work through your case with you as a team.

The long legal fights that have involved the first responders from the World Trade Center site stand as a difficult reminder about how long complex legal cases can take to settle.

Similar situations will likely come out of the oil spill debacle in the Gulf of Mexico, where legal cases are sure to drag on for many years as plaintiffs seek damages for injuries, their livelihoods and their properties from BP and others.

If you or your family ever find yourselves in such a situation where you have suffered injuries or damages, remember to pay heed to several key first steps:

*Don’t sign anything. Don’t release your rights to anyone else until you have had a chance to talk with your lawyer.

*Don’t make any statements. Be sure you call your attorney and first discuss with him what happened and how you were injured. Let your attorney deal with everyone else.

*See your doctor and seek medical attention immediately for any injury that you suffer.

Try to maintain records of your injury case, from cell phone photos to a diagram of the accident scene to witness accounts and police incident reports, if available.

Your case is a team effort between you and your lawyer.

Be sure you select a law firm that gives you the confidence to go into your legal fight together, united, with ultimate victory as our collective goal, so that you and your family receive the monetary award that you deserve.

When losing isn’t an option, give the legal team at MyPhillyLawyer a call.

Whatever your needs, MyPhillyLawyer is waiting here to help you to ensure that you have the strongest team that you can put together.

You have our pledge on that.

Now imagine that your work involves patient care and life or death decisions as a medical resident in a teaching hospital, with shifts lasting 24 to 30 hours at a time.

That’s how things have been set up in teaching hospitals for years, but it’s not necessarily the best thing for patients.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/asiseeit

Well-deserved changes could be coming, though, in the form of new standards from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), which is responsible for the accreditation of medical training programs in the U.S.

In an announcement this week, the group unveiled proposed new standards which would curtail the permissible working hours of medical residents in hospitals to increase their efficiency and better assure the safety and care of the patients they treat.

This is a great idea for healthcare patients across our nation.

It will better protect patients from medical errors made by exhausted young doctors and will mean improved oversight and care for patients.

It could also mean fewer tragic medical malpractice cases that are filed each year by the families of patients who receive care that is laced with errors caused by exhaustion and inexperience.

Those cases should never happen in the first place.

The proposed new standards include several major improvements, such as reducing the maximum work shift of a resident from 24 hours down to 16 hours in one stint.

Long hours by these young doctors-in-training have long been a hazard of their work and lead to sleep deprivation and other health issues, according to critics.

An earlier round of similar rules changes made back in 2003 that began to recognize these hazards would be improved upon with the new proposals, according to an Associated Press story this week.

“The proposal slightly revises regulations adopted seven years ago and would have the biggest impact on interns — new doctors in their first year of residency training programs in hospitals after graduating from medical school,” the AP story reported. “They would be more closely supervised by experienced doctors and the maximum length of their work shifts would be cut from 24 hours to 16 hours. Maximum work shifts would remain 24 hours for residents in their second year and beyond. Maximum work weeks would remain at 80 hours for all hospital residents. All residents and their supervisors also would be required to explain their roles to patients and explain that supervisors are ultimately in charge of their care.”

All of these proposals are excellent and will go far – if hospitals and medical facilities adhere to them – to improve patient care and reduce tragic treatment errors.

For you and your family members, these are important changes that can have meaningful impacts if you have to be treated in a hospital.

How large an impact will this have on medical residents and hospitals around the nation?

According to the ACGME,  one in every five doctors in the U.S. today is a medical resident or a fellow, which means that the impact will be noticeable.

The ACGME is accepting comments on the proposals for 45 days and will then submit a final draft for the recommended standards to its board in September, according to the group.

Hospitals say they are worried that the proposed cutbacks in hours would mean shortages of doctors and increases in costs for bringing in additional medical staff.  Some critics argue that the proposals don’t go far enough and will still lead to exhausted doctors who are more prone to making mistakes.

At MyPhillyLawyer, we feel that the proposals are yet another important step to fine tune and improve the healthcare treatment system in the U.S.

We support these changes and hope that the ACGME continues to lead the way in its role in increasing patient safety and reducing medical mistakes in the years to come.

These kinds of improvements can’t come soon enough.

Just ask a family member who has had to sue for medical malpractice after a loved one has been seriously injured or died from errant treatment by a rushed or exhausted doctor.

Those kinds of tragedies are something that no one should ever have to endure.

A new state report from the Pennsylvania Department of Health concludes that 25,914 patients undergoing surgeries and other treatments in hospitals last year had their conditions complicated by infections they picked up during their stays, according to a blog post today in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

That’s a lot of infections and a lot of patients who are often made sicker than they were when they went in to the hospitals.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/Platinus

In the meantime, more can and should be done to stop this problem to better protect patients and reduce health costs.

The report for the first time covers a full year of infection data from 250 hospitals in the Commonwealth, breaking it down by individual facilities, according to the Inquirer story.

For prospective patients, the data can show what the post-surgery infection rates are in a wide range of hospitals across Pennsylvania, while for the institutions, the report can serve as a yardstick to continue to work to reduce this troublesome problem.

Patients certainly shouldn’t be sicker after their surgery than they were before they came in, due to infections they pick up while in the hospital.

That’s just outrageous in today’s world.

Patients can sue and take legal action in such cases to obtain deserved monetary awards, but they simply shouldn’t have to go through such increased pain and suffering in the first place.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta estimates that 1.7 million healthcare-related infection cases occur in hospitals each year across the nation, including 99,000 deaths. The national statistics break down with 32% of the cases being related to urinary tract infections, while another 22% are surgical site infections. Some 15% are pneumonia (lung infections), while 14% are bloodstream infections.

In the new Pennsylvania report, the figures are a bit different. Here, the most common infection complications came from surgeries, with 6,277 cases, or 23.7%, based on data collected by the CDC. Urinary tract infections  made up 6,145 cases, while gastrointestinal infections made up 4,848 cases and bloodstream infections totaled 3,271 cases.

Better reporting of in-hospital infection cases is a great start, but improved procedures and infection prevention practices is also necessary to ensure patient safety.

As a health care consumer, you have a right to expect to go into a hospital and come out feeling better, not getting sicker, due to your stay.

In the event you get an in-hospital infection during a hospital stay, be sure that you seek legal help and advice to help protect your legal standing and your family.

So what can you do as a health care consumer to avoid getting such an infection in the first place?

You can search online and investigate your local hospitals and get their rates of such infections before you ever set foot in the place.

Here are some great tips from the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Clean Hands Save Lives Program:

*Choose a good hospital and a healthcare provider you trust.

*Ask your surgeon lots of detailed questions about your risk for infection and means of prevention.

*If you smoke and you’re going to need surgery, stop smoking well before your scheduled surgery date. Patients who smoke are three times more likely to develop a surgical site infection as nonsmokers, and have significantly slower recoveries and longer hospital stays.

*If you are overweight, try to lose weight before having surgery. People who are at a healthy weight will have a lower risk of infection following surgery.

*If you have diabetes, talk to your healthcare provider about ways to control your blood sugar before, during and after any hospital stay. High blood sugar levels have been found to increase the risk of getting an infection. Be sure to inform your doctor of any medications you are taking.

*Ask your healthcare provider about showering or bathing with chlorhexidine soap three to five days before surgery. This can help remove any dangerous bacteria you may be carrying on your skin.

*Tell your doctor about any medications you are taking, including vitamins, herbal medicines, and over-the-counter medications.

*When possible, treat any existing infections you may have before having any type of surgical procedure. This includes all infections, not just those near the portion of your body undergoing surgery.

*While in the hospital, wash your hands often and carefully. The simple act of washing your hands is perhaps the single most effective way you can avoid getting an infection. It’s equally important to help your doctors, nurses, and other medical staff to remember to wash their hands as well.

*Make sure hospital staff cleans and disinfects any surfaces or equipment you may come in contact with, such as bed rails, sinks, and medical equipment. A common source of bacteria are stethoscopes, which caregivers often do not clean between patients. Before your doctor or nurse uses a stethoscope, ask that it be cleaned with alcohol.

*Ask anyone who is coughing to wear a mask or stay at least six feet away from you. This will help reduce your risk of getting an infection that is transmitted through the air. If possible, have family and friends postpone visits if they are feeling ill.

*Watch for proper catheter use, and ask about your options. Catheters are long, thin flexible tubes that are inserted in your body to deliver or remove fluids. Because they enter through the skin or a body opening, they can allow infections to enter your body. Ask your doctor about the benefits of using a catheter that is coated with antibiotics or silver-chlorhexidine to reduce infections. Try to avoid a urinary tract catheter if possible, as this is one of the most common sources of infection.

*Avoid touching your hands to your mouth, nose, or eyes, or setting food or utensils on the furniture or bed. Some types of germs can live for many days on surfaces and can cause infections if they get into your nose, eyes, or mouth.

*If you have an IV, make sure that it’s cleaned properly when inserted and removed, and that it’s changed every 3 to 4 days. The person treating you should clean your skin where the IV is inserted, and should be wearing clean gloves. If any redness appears, alert hospital staff immediately.

*Remind your doctor that you may need to take an antibiotic before having surgery. For many surgeries, you should receive an antibiotic an hour or so before your surgery to help prevent a surgical site infection. If you don’t receive an antibiotic before your surgery, ask your doctor whether one is necessary.

*Remember that there are some things beyond your control and expertise. You’ve researched your healthcare provider, and reviewed infection rates at different hospitals. You’ve been an active participant in your medical care, paying close attention, and not hesitating to ask questions or let someone know if you think something may be wrong. Now you can know that you have done everything in your power to protect yourself from hospital infection. Remember, in most cases, your healthcare providers are trying their best to prevent infection as well.

Arming yourself with information is a key to making sure that you receive excellent medical care and a bright post-operative, infection-free future after your hospital procedures. Lots of related information is available at the state Department of Health Web site.

The work being done to reduce healthcare-related infections is certainly helping, according to the latest statistics. Previously, figures tallied by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council found that there were 30,237 cases of healthcare-related infections in Pennsylvania hospitals in 2006 and 27,949 infections in 2007 – both higher than the 2009 figures released today. The reporting of such infection cases was mandated under a new state law, Act 52, in 2007.

Things are getting better slowly, but we still have a long way to go.

Be sure to talk with a lawyer if you believe you are the victim of such an infection during a medical procedure so you can protect yourself and your family.

We read about examples like this almost every day in the newspaper.

Older people get visits at their front doors from someone who says they won a contest and have to pay a fee to collect their prizes.

Scammers bait the hook and steal money, security and the livelihoods of unsuspecting senior citizens every day. You can help take steps to prevent that for your loved ones. Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/WendellandCarolyn

Or an e-mail will arrive promising riches or describing how to make claims for old, forgotten bank balances.

Maybe it’s a request for money for some organization, like a Gulf of Mexico oil spill relief fund or food for needy children.

The reasons can be compelling and often senior citizens jump in – only to learn later that they are the victims of a heart-breaking and often bank balance-depleting scam at the hands of thieves.

The scary thing is that this isn’t just happening to elderly people in your communities.

It can also happen, or has happened, to elderly members of your own family, from your mother or father to aunts, uncles or grandparents.

But there’s plenty you can do to help prevent and fight these kinds of deceptive practices.

In a MarketWatch News Service story yesterday in The Philadelphia Inquirer, these kinds of scams were described in detail with helpful tips for how you can help protect elderly people from these scenarios.

The statistics are amazing. “More than 7.3 million older Americans – one out of every five citizens over the age of 65 – already have been victimized by a financial swindle, according to a survey released as part of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day” last week, the story said.

To fight this trend, awareness is key.

To do that, more people have to get involved to provide assistance, including helping to oversee money and how their bills are paid, as well as having discussions about questionable payments and services that might be found in their checkbooks, the story said.

One new idea is to get medical professional involved, since they are often seen and trusted by elderly patients who are being treated for medical ailments.

A new program that’s getting underway does just that – as well as helps link intervening medical professionals with government agencies who can help get things back in order after scams, investment fraud and other types of what is being called “financial abuse” aimed at senior citizens, according to the MarketWatch story.

These are great ideas, and a great start, but this also has to start within our family units, too.

We need to each be more aware of these kinds of financial frauds that take huge advantage of our elderly relatives and friends and take pains to talk with them about these kinds of threats to help protect them.

That means helping them by discussing these kinds of frauds with them to make them more aware of some of the scams that are out there, and reminding them not to jump into such arrangements without discussing them with you or an outside resource, such as an attorney.

As our relatives get older and are less analytical about such offers that come in, via e-mail, telephone or even through home visits by a stranger, we need to reassure them that there is nothing wrong with calling us in to ask about such offers and get a second opinion before handing over a check.

New issues come up as we get older, including discussions about giving someone else the power of attorney for legal, medical and business matters, and that can also be part of the discussion when mapping out a strategy to better protect your loved ones.

The FBI offers a long list of tips to help fight this nasty problem.

Among them:

*Check out unfamiliar companies or organizations.

*Confirm that bills you receive are actually for services that were rendered, and not for fraudulent “ghost” services.

*Don’t do business with door-to-door or telephone salespeople who claim that their services are free.

*Buy online drug prescriptions only from verified vendors, not through unsolicited advertisements.

*Don’t buy something under pressure. If it’s “only available right now,” then walk away.

The FBI fraud list is all-encompassing, from funeral expense scams to anti-aging medical frauds to reverse mortgage scams, all which can cause huge emotional and financial pain for those who can be cheated out of their life savings.

These are often family issues.

You can take the lead and begin these discussions in your own family.

Tell your relatives that you care and want to help them protect themselves from these kinds of financial abuses.

Talk to experts in your area, including your local Office of Aging, mental health professionals, doctors, nurses and other health care workers who assist your elderly relatives and friends on a regular basis.

And be sure to discuss these important issues with an attorney, too, to provide comfort and protection for the people you love.

Prevention is a critical key to keeping your loved ones from becoming victims of these kinds of insidious crimes.

It’s time to have those discussions and plan such strategies now.

Trying to recover stolen money, property and other items is much harder once they are gone.

Just open a newspaper and read some of the sad stories about elderly residents who were scammed out of everything that they had.

Don’t let that kind of heartbreak come to your family.

Thousands of others are out there on the roads with only two wheels on bicycles and motorcycles and are much more vulnerable to serious injury.

As motorists, we all need to be careful and more aware to protect ourselves from legal liability in the event of an accident involving a two-wheeled vehicle. And if it’s one of us riding a bicycle or motorcycle, then we need to understand our rights and protections as well, to safely operate our vehicles on the roads in a sea of cars and trucks.

Image credit: © iStockphoto.com/Orientaly

Thousands of people are injured or killed in traffic accidents involving motorcycles and bicycles each year in the U.S. You and your loved ones certainly don’t want to become one of those tragic statistics. The monetary losses from those injuries and deaths are also significant and you certainly don’t want to be on the wrong end of any legal judgments in such cases.

As drivers of cars, trucks and SUVs, we always need to remember to watch carefully for smaller, less visible vehicles like bicycles and motorcycles as we drive.

Remember to double-check your blind spots surrounding your vehicle and try to anticipate what bicyclists and motorcyclists are going to do as they cross your path.

Give them extra space when following them because they can stop far more quickly than you can stop your bulky vehicle.

Also give them extra space in case they lose control due to road surface irregularities or mechanical problems.

Bicyclists have unique challenges being seen by other motorists on the roadways due to their much smaller profiles. The Web site BikeSafe.com outlines many typical scenarios in its “How Not To Get Hit By Cars” guide, including motorists who accidentally open their car doors in front of an approaching bicyclist and other drivers who turn right at an intersection in front of a bicyclist.

Bicyclists must remember to use quality lights on their bikes and on their arms or legs when riding at night to be visible to drivers, and to follow the appropriate rules of the road at all times. Not using such safety devices can affect their legal liability in an accident.

Make sure that the bike you are riding is in good condition, fits you properly and always  wear a properly-fitting helmet, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Motorcyclists have similar needs. When operating a motorcycle, you should wear full protective gear including a helmet, jacket, gloves, long pants and boots to protect you in the event of an accident, according to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF). The MSF also offers excellent rider training programs for beginning motorcyclists as well as advanced classes for expert riders to help build and maintain your survival skills on the roads. All motorcyclists should take advantage of such opportunities.

For operators of both motorcycles and bicycles, one of the best ways to protect yourselves is to ride as though you are invisible to other motorists. Imagine that they can’t or don’t see you and ride defensively to protect yourself at all times.

Always remember that in any contact with a car or SUV, the motorcyclist or bicyclist is at a huge disadvantage and will likely be the loser.

Safety is the responsibility of all of us this summer, from motorists of the four-wheeled kind to motorcyclists and bicyclists.

As you drive this summer, remember to practice safe driving habits by carefully watching for vehicles of all sizes and be sure to maintain adequate following distances. In addition, be sure to use caution around slower-moving vehicles and drive defensively rather than aggressively to help minimize the dangers to yourself and others on the roads.

It’s a good time to be safe however you choose to travel.

A lawsuit or major injury from a collision or crash involving a bicyclist or motorcyclist would turn the joys of summer into a nightmare.

So be careful out there, whether you are driving your car or SUV or if you’re cruising on your bicycle or motorcycle.

And in the event of a mishap, remember that the lawyers here at MyPhillyLawyer are here to help you in every way possible.

With the warm, lovely weather of summer upon us, it’s a great time to remind drivers that we’re sharing the road with others who aren’t wrapped protectively in vehicle cocoons of steel, plastic and rubber.

Thousands of others are out there on the roads with only two wheels on bicycles and motorcycles and are much more vulnerable to serious injury.

As motorists, we all need to be careful and more aware to protect ourselves from legal liability in the event of an accident involving a two-wheeled vehicle. And if it’s one of us riding a bicycle or motorcycle, then we need to understand our rights and protections as well, to safely operate our vehicles on the roads in a sea of cars and trucks.

Thousands of people are injured or killed in traffic accidents involving motorcycles and bicycles each year in the U.S. You and your loved ones certainly don’t want to become one of those tragic statistics. The monetary losses from those injuries and deaths are also significant and you certainly don’t want to be on the wrong end of any legal judgments in such cases.

As drivers of cars, trucks and SUVs, we always need to remember to watch carefully for smaller, less visible vehicles like bicycles and motorcycles as we drive.

Remember to double-check your blind spots surrounding your vehicle and try to anticipate what bicyclists and motorcyclists are going to do as they cross your path.

Give them extra space when following them because they can stop far more quickly than you can stop your bulky vehicle.

Also give them extra space in case they lose control due to road surface irregularities or mechanical problems.

Bicyclists have unique challenges being seen by other motorists on the roadways due to their much smaller profiles. The Web site BikeSafe.com outlines many typical scenarios in its “How Not To Get Hit By Cars” guide, including motorists who accidentally open their car doors in front of an approaching bicyclist and other drivers who turn right at an intersection in front of a bicyclist.

Bicyclists must remember to use quality lights on their bikes and on their arms or legs when riding at night to be visible to drivers, and to follow the appropriate rules of the road at all times. Not using such safety devices can affect their legal liability in an accident.

Make sure that the bike you are riding is in good condition, fits you properly and always  wear a properly-fitting helmet, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Motorcyclists have similar needs. When operating a motorcycle, you should wear full protective gear including a helmet, jacket, gloves, long pants and boots to protect you in the event of an accident, according to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF). The MSF also offers excellent rider training programs for beginning motorcyclists as well as advanced classes for expert riders to help build and maintain your survival skills on the roads. All motorcyclists should take advantage of such opportunities.

For operators of both motorcycles and bicycles, one of the best ways to protect yourselves is to ride as though you are invisible to other motorists. Imagine that they can’t or don’t see you and ride defensively to protect yourself at all times.

Always remember that in any contact with a car or SUV, the motorcyclist or bicyclist is at a huge disadvantage and will likely be the loser.

Safety is the responsibility of all of us this summer, from motorists of the four-wheeled kind to motorcyclists and bicyclists.

As you drive this summer, remember to practice safe driving habits by carefully watching for vehicles of all sizes and be sure to maintain adequate following distances. In addition, be sure to use caution around slower-moving vehicles and drive defensively rather than aggressively to help minimize the dangers to yourself and others on the roads.

It’s a good time to be safe however you choose to travel.

A lawsuit or major injury from a collision or crash involving a bicyclist or motorcyclist would turn the joys of summer into a nightmare.

So be careful out there, whether you are driving your car or SUV or if you’re cruising on your bicycle or motorcycle.

And in the event of a mishap, remember that the lawyers here at MyPhillyLawyer are here to help you in every way possible.