What do you do if your pt's ride home is doped up?

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I had a patient who had chronic pain and was on pain meds all day long prior to discharge and while in the hospital. Well he was discharged and his significant other was going to drive him home (1hr away). As I was giving out discharge instructions (post heart cath) the driver's head was nodding off and eyes were closing. She seemed to me to be on something...very giggly and then when listening to instructions she would practically fall asleep. (I could be wrong but that was my judgment). Well I called the doc to let him know that I did not feel comfortable letting the pt go home with this person as a driver. So he meets me in the room to "assess the situation." He asked her her name, where she was, if she had taken anything that would impair her driving ability and if she thought she could drive the pt home. She was able to answer all of these questions. So the doc says it is ok to let him go with her. So we let them go. I just had a bad feeling about it. Did I do the right thing by calling the doc or was it my responsibility to judge a person's ability to drive my patient home? Just curious in case this ever happens again. Thanks.

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Specializes in Family.

I'd chart every bit of it.

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

CYA, but also call your social worker and ask for a taxi voucher for your patient and his s/o.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Call Center RN.

I would have gotten the supervisor involved as well as charted everything. I sure hope they were ok.

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Chart up the wazoo.

I have refused to discharge a pt from the ER if the driver smelled of ETOH. Another time a mom whose son was being transferred POV (back when we did POV transfers) smelled of ETOH and I refused to discharge the boy. She got smart with me and said something about being the parent and was going to leave AMA. I told her that if she left the premises with her son I would call the cops with her plate number and car description.

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Specializes in ICU, ED, Transport, Home Care, Mgmnt.

If you beleive someone is impaired and driving you can always call the police. We do that if a patient we have directed not to drive because of meds, gets in car and drives home anyway. You can't hold people against thier will. You can only instruct and document.

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Specializes in Geriatric and now peds!!!!.

Document, document, and document!

Wendy

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