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REQUESTS FOR BLOOD ALCOHOL AND DRUG LEVELS

These pages are excerpted from the Trauma Resident Handbook, Rhode Island Hospital Department of Surgery, Division of Trauma - updated 2001. The policies herein are intended to serve as guidelines only. Individual circumstances need to be considered as there may be times when it is appropriate or desirable to deviate from these guidelines. These educational guidelines will be reviewed and updated routinely.

The hospital and its personnel are under no obligation to take blood samples from an unconscious patient at the behest of law enforcement personnel or other officials.

If a patient consents to the taking of a blood sample, when requested by law enforcement personnel, the appropriate consent form should be completed.

If the patient refuses or is unable or unwilling to consent, no blood sample should be taken unless, in the opinion of the physician, its acquisition is dictated by sound medical practice for the purpose of diagnosis.

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