Intoxicated refusals w/ trauma

[PassionMedic]

[QUOTE="captaindepth, post: 646603, member: 16479"

I'm not sure how this concept can be so upsetting, but I have a feeling no matter what answer I give it will not be satisfy what you are looking for.[/QUOTE]

Seems to me some aren't realizing you are doing so to follow procedure to secure a recorded documentation to supplement your paper documentation so that if/when it goes to court the onus is on the patient and their decision and not your 'failure' as a provider.


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[DrParasite]

I'm not sure how this concept can be so upsetting, but I have a feeling no matter what answer I give it will not be satisfy what you are looking for.

I'm not upset at all, but it appears you don't know why you are doing something, only that you were told that this helps somehow to aid in the documentation process. And it helps with documentation because you are doing it on a recorded line. Who you are speaking to is pretty much irrelevant. My guess is someone told you many years ago that we call the doc on high risk refusals in order to take the liability off the field provider, when the reality is that's not an accurate.

In fact, the ONLY reason you gave which might support your claim is to allow the doctor to speak to the patient and see if he can convince him to go. But you can probably call a supervisor, and accomplish the same results (you can do the same thing by requesting a field supervisor to the scene, it's the act of having a second person in a different color shirt that convinces the patient to go; I've done it and seen it done many times over the years).

Now if you were asking for permission to allow the high risk refusal, and the doctor said it was allowable to have the patient refuse, that's different. Than he is in agreement with you, and your assessment, could share any potential liability in case something went wrong. and if you were called into court, or had to defend your actions you could say "I consulted with my medical direction, and he agreed with my assessment of the situation, and said it was permitted to have him refuse care."

But if your just "advising" him of the situation, than you can't make that statement.....

I guess we will agree to disagree on this one.