Elgin Personal Injury Blog

If you have ever attempted to transfer your medical records from one health care provider to another you know that it often requires a significant amount of time and paperwork. As health systems in the U.S. attempt to move into the 21^st century by shifting to electronic medical records, questions are being raised about the idea of offering all individuals universal patient identifiers (UPIs).

UPIs offer a uniform method of linking individuals to their medical data. Instead of having a slew of different patient ID numbers for clinics, insurance plans, pharmacies and others involved in the health care system, each patient would have a single unique UPI. The hope is the UPIs would increase efficiencies, improve patient safety and avoid hospital errors.

Advocates of UPIs argue they would enable doctors to more seamlessly transfer a patient's data between providers. This would hopefully save time, costs and improve patient safety and experience.

This past Monday the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and state police announced the beginning of a road safety campaign- Click It or Ticket and Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

The campaign is timed coincide with this upcoming holiday weekend, which has historically had a high rate of car accidents in Illinois. According to IDOT, last year over the Thanksgiving holiday there were 15 fatalities and over 740 injuries on Illinois roads.

Over the weekend, 200 law enforcement agencies will target seat belt and impaired driving violations. IDOT estimates there will be 40 roadside safety checks and over 1,700 seat belt enforcement zones.

Jeffrey Jacobs, of the Illinois State Police, cautioned motorists about dangerous driving behaviors, "We need people to be aware of the 'fatal four' dangers on the roadway, which are speeding, not wearing a seat belt, distracted driving and DUIs."

It has now been three years since Illinois strengthened driver licensing laws to address concerns of teen car accidents. However, new data released this month indicates that states with graduated driver licensing (GDL), like Illinois, may only be postponing the problem of car accident  fatalities.

Graduated Driver Licensing in Illinois

The GDL program in Illinois initially requires new drivers, ages 15 and 16, to hold a learner's permit for a minimum of nine months. Before taking the driving test, teens with learner's permits are required to take 50 hours of supervised training, including 10 hours at night.

Those 16 and 17-year-olds that become licensed drivers enter an intermediate stage where several restrictions apply. These include limits on the amount of younger passengers and restrictions on nighttime driving.