As a patient in a Hartford HealthCare hospital or Hartford HealthCare Medical Group, we want you to be healthy and safe. This includes suggesting you not drive if a medical condition makes it unsafe for you to drive safely.
Based on the symptom, such a restriction may be temporary, until we’re sure the symptom has subsided, or permanent due to your medical condition. It’s not an easy conversation to have but, unfortunately, it’s often necessary and we ask that you follow our medical advice.
At Hartford HealthCare, we have a driving safety guideline that helps our providers offer the best, most equitable and informed care possible based on your symptoms.
The guidelines - the result of extensive work by a multidisciplinary team of providers from across our system - apply to a broad range of symptoms and conditions that can cause problems driving. Symptoms can include vision loss, weakness in the limbs, attention or memory problems. Our guideline recommends that whenever a symptom is severe enough to interfere with safe driving, we must consider issuing a restriction.
According to the guideline, different types of symptoms can be:
- Episodic, meaning they happen periodically and unpredictably like seizures, anxiety attacks, fainting and sleep attacks. You need to be free of such episodes for six months to resume driving, per Connecticut law.
- Self-limited, meaning they will likely improve over time, such as a broken right leg or eye surgery. Your provider might recommend you be tested before driving again to ensure you’ve regained enough strength.
- Chronic, meaning they are unlikely to improve and will always impact driving, although some people can drive with adaptative devices. This may be symptoms like dementia or physical disability after a stroke. If the condition seems to be gradually declining, such as going blind, your provider may schedule check-in appointments to monitor it and keep you driving as long as possible.
If you have multiple providers, it only takes one who feels it is unsafe for you to drive to apply a restriction, but our providers do communicate whenever necessary to ensure the best care is being provided.
Your clinician’s role is to guide you regarding driving safety. They do not oversee whether you have a driver’s license. Generally, the clinician only contacts the DMV if there is a clear pattern of unsafe driving against medical advice. In some cases, the DMV will ask for a clinician’s input to allow driver’s license renewal and have specific government forms the clinician must complete.
We know driving is a crucial part of life for many people and these decisions are not made lightly. We promise to keep you driving safely when possible but we wouldn’t be providing the best care if we didn’t restrict unsafe driving. If you have any questions about this process, please ask your provider or call our patient advocacy office at 860-972-1100.