Many states' DMV websites lack information on physician reporting of impaired drivers

Key takeaways:

• Only 6% of states accepted anonymous reporting from physicians.
• Physicians should be “reassured” they are not directly responsible for invoking or revoking driving privileges, researchers said.

More than one-third of states’ Department of Motor Vehicles websites did not have instructions on how physicians can report medically impaired drivers, according to a recent study.

“Physicians play an important role in assessing patients’ ability to drive,” Elaine M. Tran, MD, a resident physician from the department of ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego, and Jeffrey E. Lee, MD, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the same institution, wrote in JAMA Network Open.

However, physicians also face “a variety of logistical and ethical barriers when it comes to reporting medically impaired drivers,” the researchers added.

“Physicians may fear that reporting will damage the patient-physician relationship,” they wrote. “They may also lack training on what types of conditions to report and whether reporting in their state is mandatory or voluntary.”

To better understand reporting requirements and legal immunity, Tran and Lee examined data from all 50 states’ Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) websites, interviewed DMV staff and reviewed each states’ legal codes for driver licensing.

Overall, 34% of websites lacked instructions for physician reporting.

Only six states — California, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Pennsylvania — had mandatory reporting requirements. Four of those states (California, Delaware,

Nevada and New Jersey) required reporting only conditions that were classified by lapses of consciousness.

Just 6% of states accepted anonymous reports, and 30% of states considered reports by physicians to be confidential, “with the exception that drivers could learn the name of the reporting physician, request copies of the reporting form, or request their full driving record,” Tran and Lee wrote.

Additionally, 74% of states had statutes that protected physicians from liability related to reporting medically impaired drivers.

Evidence on how much of an impact physician reporting has on driving outcomes is mixed, Tran and Lee noted. For example, one prior study suggested that reporting was linked to fewer crashes and traffic violations, whereas another found no association between reporting and hospitalizations from vehicle accidents.

“Physicians may consider the similarities of mandated reporting of communicable diseases with the reporting of medically impaired drivers,” they wrote. “Both appeal to physicians’ duties to protect public health and safety.”

The researchers concluded that “physicians should be reassured that physicians in the U.S. are not directly responsible for issuing or revoking driving privileges,” and are encouraged to educate patients and their families “about the risks of driving and state laws regarding licensing requirements.”