Most Active Stories Shots - Health Blog Thu September 27, 2012
When Doctors Tell Patients They Shouldn't Drive Originally
published on Fri September 28, 2012 2:49 pm In Ontario, doctors
get paid $36.25 each time they warn patients who might be unfit
to drive and report them to the provincial transportation
department. Which conditions might pose hazards behind the
wheel? There's a checklist on the Ontario report form that
offers some of the more common conditions, including alcohol
dependence, seizures, dementia and uncontrolled narcolepsy. So
does telling people they're not fit to drive help prevent
accidents? It looks plausible, according to results of a study
in the latest New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers at
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre found a 45 percent drop in the
annual rate of accidents for patients after doctors warned them.
The accident rate fell to about 2.73 accidents annually per
1,000 patients from 4.76 annually during a three-year period
before the warnings. There was a downsid