Yes, the hospital is about 10 minutes away -- he's had some pretty nasty DTs for the past year (and often babbles on completely nonsensically, has torn apart a dresser drawer to fix the electronics in it, etc.), but he absolutely refuses to go to a hospital. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the withdrawal isn't violent (and it never has been, any violence is always when he's still very drunk) I'll leave him to it. Sooner or later it'll kill him, but not a whole heck of a lot I can do about it. I even hesitate to call an ambulance just knowing what sort of trouble the responders will have trying to get him to go against his will -- he's a pretty powerful guy, even now (used to play semi-pro football and hockey, professional boxing with a perfect record except the draw that made him decide to quit).
No matter how drunk he gets, he does tend to keep track of his finances and the last fifth will take him a couple of days, as opposed to the normal 4-6 hours, so maybe that tapering helps a little bit. Either way, he's made it clear he'll go to a hospital when he's blue and bloated, and I won't push the subject. If it sticks around longer than usual or something more severe happens I'll call them, but detaching from that whole potential roller-coaster has been a huge accomplishment for me and I know that if he dies it's squarely on his shoulders. The way he's been lately, I'm surprised every time he survives. That may sound really horrible, but it is what it is.