I’m at that age where docs suggest various tests, such as colonoscopies, etc. Around here, you’re not allowed to drive there, and must have a driver take you to some of these, and can’t use an Uber or taxi (technically). While I can ask family or friends, I’d prefer to not burden them. Are there options?
Medical/patient transport companies. You’d have to check with the doctor/medical facility if they will release you to their care, though.
I had a colonoscopy last year. I took an Uber to the appointment and asked a co-worker to drive me home. I get not wanting to bug friends or family, but it is a minor favor. (And a medical transport company is going to be expensive.)
When I had my colonoscopy, I used one of those. They were provided by the hospital and was free as I recall. That may not be true everywhere though.
Check your city’s mass-transit company. Here in Tucson, they run a low-cost non-emergency medical service to take people to appointments, dialysis treatments, etc. The fare is very inexpensive, typically $3.20 a trip, regardless of distance. If you’re low-income, they cut the rate in half. Since April, though, they have eliminated fares due to the coronavirus crisis.
If you’d be open to taking an Uber or Lyft and just aren’t allowed to, it suggests to me that you’d be okay with another sort of vetted stranger. Maybe check out Rent a Friend? Though I wouldn’t volunteer the fact that your friend is a “friend” to the doctor’s office.
Has a drivers license It’s always good to have a Friend that can drive! That allows you to travel and experience new places fast and easily. Many people on RentAFriend.com are available for driving.
Where I get these kinds of procedures, the rule is: You MUST have a driver, and that driver MUST remain at the clinic for the duration of the procedure. You CANNOT use Uber or Lyft or public transportation (and I suppose that also rules out a professional medical transport).
(ETA: With the Covid pandemic, they don’t allow patients to bring visitors. So I don’t know how that plays with the rule about drivers having to hang around.)
This has been a deal-breaker for me at least once in the past. Eventually, I called upon my brother, who lived THREE HOURS away, who came just to do this for me.
I currently have a deal with a certain neighbor to drive for each other in cases like this, and we have each had a few occasions to drive the other around in the past several years, sometimes for multi-hour procedures or for fairly distant drives. (ETA: Including one event where I called him at 03:00 a.m. to take me to the ER, which lasted for about five hours.)
Total PITA.
Another problem: I live about 40 minute drive from my medical provider. I’m worried if I have to do another colonoscopy. In the hours just before the procedure, I don’t know that I could reliably handle being on the road away from a bathroom for that long. You know what I mean.
I haven’t encountered this before, it seems ridiculous for a procedure that may take hours. How do they enforce it? Is somebody taking roll call in the waiting room every 30 minutes, and they stop the procedure halfway through if your friend isn’t there?
I don’t know specifically. They don’t chain the driver down to a chair. The last time I did this, they gave the driver a pager (like you see at some restaurants) and let him wander around the facility (there’s also a cafeteria there) until paged to come and get me.
A few years earlier, it wasn’t like that. I had a colonoscopy without a driver, but I had to call a neighbor to come get me afterward. They required the driver to show up before they would let me go. They wouldn’t let me take a bus or call a taxi.
Yes, this part is common. It’s just the waiting around part that seems totally unreasonable, designed for their benefit (I’m sure there are occasional cases when the pickup doesn’t show) while giving no consideration to the convenience of their patients. I guess you don’t have any nearby alternate facility, or people would just go elsewhere.
I used to drive my Daddy to those things. I had to sign in with him. I got a pager and they had my cel number.
I could leave for awhile, I went to a place for lunch. When I got back they had me sign in again. Mostly I sat in a large area of others waiting and read.
I’d recommend the OP press family into driving/helping. It’s not that horrible. I’ve done worse things.
What’s the issue with taking a taxi? Not disputing there may be an issue, I just can’t work out what it would be.
(In the UK, Land of the NHS, you can request a (free) pick up by non-emergency ambulance service, basically a minibus which picks up a few people at a time).
Another problem: Suppose something goes horribly wrong during the procedure. Like the colonoscope pokes a hole in the colon. Then it’s an immediate trip to the Emergency Room for emergency surgery, possibly with multiple recovery days in the hospital.
But there’s this HIPPApotamus law that says they can’t tell your driver anything about it. So what happens? They leave your driver sitting in the waiting room until they close for the night and shoo everyone out? Can I specifically request that they tell my driver if something like that happens? Apparently, that requires extra paperwork, and apparently especially if the driver isn’t my relative.
I asked these questions, and couldn’t get a straight answer.
It’s remarkable how many people in the medical field either don’t understand HIPAA or use it in draconian ways.
Absolutely YES you can not merely request but insist on someone else being told if something happens. It should only require one additional line on the paperwork you fill out anyway, but if the facility is too stupid to have that already set up, taking a piece of paper and writing “I want X to know about Y and consent to Z facility doing this”, date it, and sign your name should take care of it.
If there’s a spot on those forms you fill out prior to the procedure that asks for an emergency contact that’s where you put the name of your driver. So, at least in theory, if your scenario occurs that’s the person they call.
One of the reasons there was some opposition to HIPAA when it was passed was exactly that sort of situation.
I have had two colonoscopies on the NHS. Yes, they did insist that I shouldn’t drive myself, but there was no nonsense about taxis or my driver waiting around.
My wife took me and went home. after the procedure, they put me on a bed in a cubicle and gave me tea and biscuits. An hour later they phoned my wife to tell her that I was ready. She did have to come up and collect me, so they knew that I wasn’t off to catch a bus or something.
It sounds like you live in a non-US country.
Our medical professionals are so afraid of lawsuits, that they generally avoid all risk.
Thanks for all the advice so far, everyone!
What? No tea and biscuits?
I’ve never encountered the driver having to wait - but I have two ideas about why
-
They’re not just concerned with you not driving ( want someone who will keep an eye on you for at least a little while.and get too many people who try to use a can Uber or Lyft.
-
You say they provide a pager and the driver could wander around the facility- is the facility somewhat isolated from places the driver might go? I get my colonoscopy at the doctor’s office on the commercial street, so my husband can run some errands right outside. But there are some hospitals where there is no where to go outside the hospital that will get him back in time. And they don’t want you waiting a half- hour for your driver.
Oh boy is this important to me. I have insurance through Kaiser Permanente in the DC metro area. They are fine doctors but you have to go from one center to another to get any kind of tests done. So 20 miles away to do a xray or a colonoscopy. And they require family to wait all day for you to get out. News flash, my only relative is older and sicker then I am. They are going to force me into a CCRS before I am ready to go. I wonder if those ads for elder care allow for a daily caregiver?
I would add a WAG that such a procedure to be ‘out patient’ may require someone get them home safely as part of the outlined procedure. If such event does not happen then it would require a doctor to sign off on it officially changing the procedure beyond the guidelines. It may require a stay to make sure one is OK after that. In other words my guess is it’s partly bureaucratic red tape.