20 hours ago Whether to report an older driver whose driving skills are significantly impaired is a difficult decision for a medical professional. There can be a conflict between the need to protect confidentiality of your patient and your duty to protect public safety. A decision can be much easier if you are aware about the laws of the state where you practice. >> Go To The Portal
If a physician reports a condition that can affect the driving safety of a patient, the DMV can suspend the driver license. The suspension remains in effect until a physician certifies that the condition has been treated or controlled and does not currently affect driving ability.
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This duty exists even when reporting impaired drivers is not mandated by law. Physicians should explain to their patients this obligation to report. Departments of Motor Vehicles should be the final determiners of the inability to drive safely.
In New York, the DMV can require any licensed driver or applicant to submit to a medical examination by a personal physician who completes this report on behalf of the patient.
Whether to report an older driver whose driving skills are significantly impaired is a difficult decision for a medical professional. There can be a conflict between the need to protect confidentiality of your patient and your duty to protect public safety.
Physician reporting of demented drivers may have little effect on their driving, if the demented person does not comprehend the implications of loss of licensure. For demented patients, responsibility for driving cessation falls on other persons, such as the next-of-kin or legal guardian.
If a physician reports that an individual has a condition that can affect that individual's driving skills, DMV can suspend the individual's driver license until a physician certifies that the condition is treated or controlled and the individual can drive safely. DMV can require that the physician recertify at a later time that the condition does not affect the individual's ability to drive. If DMV does not receive the required certification, DMV can suspend the driver license.
if you are a police officer, submit a Police Agency Request for Driver Review (DS-5) form
A re-examination can include a vision test, a written test, or a road test.
No. A copy of the DS-7 report is available under the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). However, DMV does not disclose the name of the person who completed the DS-7 in response to a FOIL request.
Most traffic deaths of older drivers occur during the daytime, on weekdays, and involve other vehicles. Older adults are more susceptible to death or serious injury in a crash if they are physically frail, but the good news is that older people are more likely to survive crashes than in the past.
A driving skill evaluation includes an in-car evaluation of your driving abilities and a recommendation regarding any further specialized drivers' training. Clinical driving assessments are used to identify underlying medical causes of any driving performance deficits and offer ways to address them, so driving remains a safe option.
A 15-question self-rating driving assessment exercise in the booklet at this link is designed to help you examine your driving performance. Answer the questions and score your driving performance.
According to the National Institute of Health, the rate of crashes among adults 65 and over has decreased in recent years. Research suggests that this decline is due to a number of factors, including older adults’ better health, safer cars, and safer roads. In addition, older drivers’ ability ...
Here are some steps you can take to stay safe on the road: Exercise regularly in order to increase your strength and flexibility. Ask your doctor or pharmacist to review your medications-both prescription and over-the-counter. Have your vision checked every year. Drive during daylight and in good weather.
Here are some steps you can take to stay safe on the road: 1 Exercise regularly in order to increase your strength and flexibility. 2 Ask your doctor or pharmacist to review your medications-both prescription and over-the-counter. 3 Have your vision checked every year. 4 Drive during daylight and in good weather. 5 Find the safest routes with well-lit streets. 6 Plan your route before you drive. 7 Leave a large following distance behind the car in front of you. 8 Avoid distractions in your car, such as listening to a loud radio, texting or talking on the phone. 9 Consider potential alternatives to driving, such as riding with a friend or using public transport to get around.
There are online and in-person driver safety courses offered through many companies and organizations.
Reporting by Physicians of Impaired Drivers and Potentially Impaired Drivers
The majority of states provide only for voluntary physician reporting. A few states have mandatory reporting laws. For example, Delaware , New Jersey , and Nevada require reporting for epilepsy. California and Utah also mandate reporting of dementia and other cognitive impairments.12Failure to report may lead to physician liability if the patient as a driver is involved in an automobile accident. In California, it may also be grounds for disciplinary action by the State Medical Board.31
In 1997, the American Medical Association (AMA) resolved to study physicians' legal and ethical obligations with respect to reporting physical and medical conditions which may impair a patient's ability to drive and to investigate the potential legal liability to which physicians may be exposed as a result of caring for patients with these physical and medical conditions . The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) of the AMA was assigned responsibility and its report (I-1-98) concluded that the problem of impaired drivers illustrates the fundamental conflict between the responsibility physicians have to individual patients and their responsibility to society. The CEJA report included the following points:
Physicians may be sued by their patients if they fail to counsel their patients on the dangers of driving associated with certain medications or medical conditions. Physicians may also face legal action by victims of motor vehicle accidents caused by their patients if the court decides that the physicians could have foreseen the danger of their patients' continuing to drive. Physicians' legal responsibilities to report patients with certain medical conditions override their ethical responsibilities to keep patients' medical histories confidential.33
For a number of reasons, physicians should be restrained in reporting to authorities drivers with a mild or moderate increase in driving risk. First, this degree of added risk is on the same order as other conditions where reporting is not considered professionally or legally appropriate, e.g., benzodiazapine use. Second, the burdens of loss of driving privilege may be out of proportion to threat to personal and public safety. Third, physician-as-policer is of questionable long-term, net benefit to patients. Patients may avoid health services in these circumstances. This avoidance would limit physicians' effectiveness in caring for such patients and, by corollary, preclude physician involvement in driver safety. Physicians should educate patients about relevant conditions which impair driving, and be attentive to increases in disability over time. For example, a patient with cataracts should be educated as to its early effects on night vision. A patient declining treatment for sleep apnea should be counseled about the increased driving risk associated with the untreated condition. Where driving risk is profound and the patient refuses to cease driving, physicians should contact the licensing agency. The marked and immediate risk to patient and public safety outweigh the potential consequences of reporting on the future care of patients.
Some impaired drivers avoid their responsibility to cease driving due to emotional and logistical concerns of dependence and immobility. Physicians should consider family support in this life-event. Family members can provide emotional support to the patient, can reinforce the physician's concerns, can assist the patient in articulating his or her concerns, and can play an important role in developing strategies for patient safety and welfare. For example, family members can encourage the patient to have a needed cataract excision, may volunteer to transport the patient to occupation therapy sessions, and can offer rush hour and nighttime transportation to minimize patient exposure to adverse driving conditions.
The U.S. Federal Motor Carriers Safety Regulations , administered by the Department of Transportation, require most commercial vehicle drivers to be certified by a medical examiner. Should an accident occur, the physician who examined the driver may be found liable since such physicians' primarily responsibility is to the public. Some medical diagnoses, such as insulin-requiring diabetes mellitus, seizure disorders, and significant visual or hearing defects, are automatically disqualifying, no matter how well the disease is controlled. In spite of these seemingly stringent regulations, most certification examinations of commercial drivers are simple, and relatively few drivers are disqualified from driving a commercial vehicle such as a truck or bus.34
Laws Concerning Disclosure of Impaired Drivers. Many states have enacted laws to address the problem of impaired drivers. Some of these laws mandate disclosure to motor vehicle authorities, while, in others, disclosure is voluntary. Some states require reporting for specific conditions but not for others [4].
Physicians should be aware of their professional responsibilities and the legal requirements of the states in which they practice. When determining whether to report a patient’s medical condition that may impair driving, physicians may have to weigh conflicting guidelines: a professional obligation to report and a legal requirement to maintain confidentiality, even in the face of danger to the public.
Whether they mandate reporting, prohibit it, or make it voluntary, the laws have much room for improvement. Ethically and professionally physicians’ duties do not stop with existing laws; they are encouraged to “work with their state medical societies to create statutes that uphold the best interests of patients and community and that safeguard physicians from liability when reporting in good faith” [14].
Although a number of states mandate or permit physician reporting of diseases or illness that may impair driving abilities, those that don ’t address the physicians’ role in reporting put physicians in a peculiar position. On the one hand, the American Medical Association’s Code of Medical Ethics explicitly acknowledges that physicians have a responsibility “to recognize impairments in patients’ driving ability that pose a strong threat to public safety and which ultimately may need to be reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles” [14]. On the other hand, the law may prohibit physicians from disclosing confidential information without an explicit exception. In other words, if informing driver’s licensing agencies (i.e., the Department of Motor Vehicles) about potentially dangerous drivers is not a legally sanctioned reason for breaching confidentiality, physicians may be unable to disclose. So, if they follow their professional obligation to report patients (pursuant to detailed guidelines [14]), doctors may face civil and criminal liability for unauthorized disclosure under some state laws [15].
Oregon, for example, has broad regulations. Its laws require physicians ( especially primary care physicians) to report conditions that impair sensory, motor, and cognitive functioning to state authorities [5], and they provide comprehensive standards for determining when a driver is impaired.
Where obligated to report, physicians must do so. When reporting is voluntary, they should also consider their professional obligations before deciding on a course of action. Certainly, limited criminal and civil liability protections that place the physician at legal risk should be a factor in cases where reporting is not mandated.
The other side of that confidentiality protection, of course, is that, where reporting is not authorized by law, physicians are unlikely to face civil liability for failing to disclose a potentially dangerous patient. There is some similarity between these laws and the duty to report under the rulings in Tarasoff, which require physicians to report a clear, significant danger to an identifiable party [16]. The difference with impaired driver legislation is that no identifiable person is in danger. Courts, therefore, are unlikely to find the physician civilly liable if a third party is injured due to a patient’s impairment, even when the physician knew about it.
Notify the driver of the actions they are required to take, which may include medical and skills assessments.
Then either fax it to (804) 367-1604 or mail it to: DMV Medical Review Services. Post Office Box 27412. Richmond, Virginia 23269-0001.
The DMV takes the following actions after receiving a Request for Medical Review: Review the request. Follow up with the person reporting the driver, if necessary. Determine the type of review to be conducted. Notify the driver of the actions they are required to take, which may include medical and skills assessments.
Virginia law does not require mandatory reporting of potentially unsafe drivers. It also states that if a doctor does report a patient to the DMV, the report is not a violation of doctor-patient confidentiality.
A Medical Request Form can be filed by anyone. They often come from law enforcement officers, physicians and relatives, though they can also be filed by the driver themselves. Many families feel more comfortable asking their doctor to initiate the conversation with their loved one and file the request for a medical review.
Virginia law states that if the Medical Review Request is filed by a relative or a licensed medical professional treating the driver, the DMV cannot tell the driver who reported them to the DMV. If the report is filed by anyone other than a relative or a licensed medical professional treating ...
Practitioners suspected of having problems with alcohol, drugs, or mental illness, but whose ability to practice is not impaired, may be reported to the Committee on Physicians' Health of the Medical Society of the State of New York (the committee). All calls are confidential.
The vast majority of New York's licensed physicians are dedicated, caring and capable professionals working to protect and improve the health of their patients. However, physicians whose practice of medicine is seriously deficient or who are dishonest or impaired affect the integrity of the entire profession and potentially impact the quality of patient care.
Many of the complaints reviewed by OPMC staff concern issues over which OPMC has no legal authority. In other instances, investigations fail to find sufficient evidence to warrant a charge of misconduct.
A physician surrendered his license after pleading guilty to conduct evidencing moral unfitness to practice medicine for inappropriate sexual contact with two patients.
A physician was found guilty of prescribing drugs to patients without doing even minimally necessary exams or histories. The physician was found to have given one patient drugs that were excessive in number, too high in dosage, dangerous in their combined side effects and, in some instances, contraindicated.
More than half of all complaints about physicians and physician assistants come from the public— patients, friends and family members.
For her failure to adequately perform and interpret ultrasound examinations, failure to perform or order necessary laboratory tests, failure to diagnose an ectopic pregnancy and appropriately treat a patient's complaint of lack of fetal movement, a physician's license was revoked due to her negligence and incompetence.
Only doctors are required by law to report medical conditions to the DMV. But other parties have the option to do so, including: law enforcement officers, judges, family members, friends, concerned private citizens, and. even the driver him- or herself (in a driver’s license application or during a visit to the DMV).
do nothing (if the Department finds that the driver poses no safety risk), ask for further medical information, conduct a “ reexamination hearing ,” or. in rare cases, immediately suspend or revoke the person’s driving privileges. The DMV must notify the impacted driver in writing of its final decision.
This form requires the driver to provide the DMV with a comprehensive health history. The driver must complete and return the DME within 26 days. The driver has to sign the DME under penalty of prosecution for the California crime of perjury.
The DMV will then review the DME. If it determines that the driver does not pose a safety risk, it will take no further action.
After receiving a report about a driver, the DMV will conduct an initial safety risk assessment of the driver.
macular degeneration. These conditions are a common cause of driver’s license suspensions for elderly drivers. But drivers of all ages can be affected. Once the DMV receives a report from a physician regarding a driver’s inability to drive safely, it can take any of the following actions:
Most states require physicians to inform the DMV when they diagnose a patient with any medical or mental condition that may affect the person’s ability to drive safely.