Very interesting and timely for me. Just had a case of a drunk driver last night who had a single car accident, knocking down a telephone pole. Clinically, an ETOH level was not necessary, however, the local police wanted one. Our hospital policy was very clear and consisted of two forms: 1. A form for the police to fill out essentially requesting us to draw the labs with their justification (pt has consented, they have a warrant etc.) 2. a consent form for the patient saying they understand the blood could be used against them in a court of law, they could withdraw consent up to a certain point etc...
The patient consented to the draw and then our RN drew the blood and immediately handed it to the officer and they process it through whichever lab they use. It was very spelt out how it was to be done, I believe for chain of evidence purposes.
I'd encourage everyone to look at their hospital policy just to be familiar (we all had to look it up). We are in a small town and know almost all the officers (I took care of the requesting officer's son earlier in the evening!), so it was a very easy interaction. It sounds like the incident in Utah very much got out of hand, I would be very curious to hear how that pans out for the RN, I'm no lawyer but it sounds like the officer had no grounds to arrest her.
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Jeffrey S. - September 23, 2017 4:14 PM
Very interesting and timely for me. Just had a case of a drunk driver last night who had a single car accident, knocking down a telephone pole. Clinically, an ETOH level was not necessary, however, the local police wanted one. Our hospital policy was very clear and consisted of two forms: 1. A form for the police to fill out essentially requesting us to draw the labs with their justification (pt has consented, they have a warrant etc.) 2. a consent form for the patient saying they understand the blood could be used against them in a court of law, they could withdraw consent up to a certain point etc...
The patient consented to the draw and then our RN drew the blood and immediately handed it to the officer and they process it through whichever lab they use. It was very spelt out how it was to be done, I believe for chain of evidence purposes.
I'd encourage everyone to look at their hospital policy just to be familiar (we all had to look it up). We are in a small town and know almost all the officers (I took care of the requesting officer's son earlier in the evening!), so it was a very easy interaction. It sounds like the incident in Utah very much got out of hand, I would be very curious to hear how that pans out for the RN, I'm no lawyer but it sounds like the officer had no grounds to arrest her.