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Oregon OTs used to stop unsafe drivers

Rehab Private Practice Alert, November 23, 2005

Under the Oregon Medically At-Risk Driver Program established last year, occupational therapists in the state are being used to test questionable driver's competency, reports the Portland Tribune.

The state is using a driving assessment plan in which physicians must refer patients who they suspect can no longer safely drive a motor vehicle to OTs.

OTs then test the patients on their eyesight, reaction time, strength, coordination, and range of motion. OTs then send their report back to the physicians, who are required by law to report unqualified patients to the state.

The program was set up so doctors wouldn't upset their patients by being the ones to determining them unfit to drive. OTs in the state are using it as a niche market to draw in new patients.

Since the program's inception, doctors have turned in 3,618 patients and the department of motor vehicles suspended 73% of them, though only 55% of those people were 70 or older.

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