Kline says arrest of hospital workers possible with DUI policy

Kline says arrest of hospital workers possible with DUI policy
Kline would charge workers if they refused to get blood samples from reluctant suspects.
By DIANE CARROLL
The Kansas City Star

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline has adopted a policy calling for hospitals to draw blood from unwilling patients who are suspects in serious alcohol-related traffic accidents.

Kline said his office would try to get search warrants for the blood from judges by telephone. But if the warrants cannot be obtained in a timely manner, he said, he expected hospitals to draw the blood anyway.

Doctors and nurses who refuse to do so will risk arrest for obstruction of justice, Kline said last week in an interview in his office.

Although “we hope we don’t have to” arrest anyone, Kline said, “my policy is, we are not going to back down. We are going to get the evidence.”

Spokesmen for the University of Kansas Hospital and Shawnee Mission Medical Center said they wanted to cooperate with the district attorney’s office. At the same time, they said, they are bound to obey federal regulations and meet accrediting agency requirements that protect the privacy of their patients and outline procedures on their physical restraint.

more . . .
http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/66212.html

When I worked in the ER we made it very clear that we did not care what someone was holding or what they had been doing and we just took care of them. Who would ever come in and how could you take care of them if they thought they were going to get busted? That is the job of law enforcement, not the hospital staff.

I cannot wait until this frootloop is gone from here.

sympathy. I can't imagine. I hope the way he got there seriously fucks up the Pubs chances in Johnson County.

I only get pulled over in his jurisdiction. See why I'm reluctant to cross the state line? When will he try to mandate blood tests at traffic stops?