Question

Exercise

Mr. S is a 79-year-old bachelor who is being treated by a family medicine physician for hypertension. Mr. S tolerates the medications without any serious side effects and is in generally good health, except that he has suffered progressive vision loss and been told by his ophthalmologist that he has macular degeneration. His visual acuity is 20/200 in the right eye and 20/80 in the left.

Mr. S lives by himself in a suburban area. A neighbor of Mr. S who is a patient of Mr. S’s family physician confided to the physician that she (the neighbor) worries about safety when she sees Mr. S driving down the street. At Mr. S’s next regular visit, the physician inquired about the patient’s driving. Mr. S expressed no concern about this, stating that he always drove “real careful” and is much more attentive to his driving than all the teenage “whippersnappers” who cruise around his neighborhood.

Questions = What legal duties and liabilities, if any, does the physician have regarding Mr. S’s driving? Would it make any difference if Mr. S had dementia, alcoholism, syncope, or some other malady rather than macular degeneration? Why is Mr. S so insistent on continuing to drive his car? What kind of compromise plan might be worked out in response to this situation?

Answer 1

The physician does not have any legal liabilities regarding mr.S's driving .It is the physocians responsibility to inform the patient about them being a risk toboth personal and public safety . If the patient semms to not report themseles as they are supposed to do legally as a physcisian its your responsibility to enlist the help of their family and close friends to convince them to do so .If the do not do that one shoud refrain from from reporting a patient . this has may reasons:

1) physician-as-policer is of questionable long-term, net benefit to patients hence patients may avoid health services in these circumstances.

2) the burden of loss of driving privileges may seem to be out of proportion so as look like a threat to personal safety.

The answer remains the same if the driver is suffering from some malady as its the drivers responmsibility to report this ti the authorties . if the patient asks for a medical clearing the physician has a legal obligation to not give it to the patient if still suffering . leaving that the physician has no legal obligation but here it is more about a moral obligation.

Driving is an essential part of ones daily lives providing immense comfort in mobility for any purpose.It seems obvious why one would not want to give up the lisence for carrying out such a mundane and important task.

A compromise to be helped by the close relatives of mr.s helping his mobility till he gets allrigh after surgery/treatment would a a amicable plan.Mr.S ca also use cans and ride sharing servics such as uber ,lyft and the public transport system.