Posted on 01/11/2013 2:25:04 AM PST by Biggirl
Some of the most common and most powerful prescription painkillers on the market will be restricted sharply in the emergency rooms at New York City’s 11 public hospitals, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday in an effort to crack down on what he called a citywide and national epidemic of prescription drug abuse.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I am so sorry that happened to your wife, silverleaf. I know it was hard for you to watch as well. I hope she is doing well now. What concerns me about this is the “shotgun” management approach. Are there people who go to the E.R. complaining of “pain” to get a script? Sure. However, many people need pain killers to deal with broken bones, stitches, whatever. My GP told me some years ago that pain medications aren’t just for the pain. If the body is undergoing pain, it doesn’t heal as fast/quickly. Liberals like to look at the problem group (no matter what low % it may be) and puts everyone into that group. We’re seeing it with our 2nd amendment... now we’re seeing it with pain medications.
(2) - I agree with the posters up-thread who think this is not an inappropriate response to the tsunami of drug seekers who hit the city ED's every single day.
Until 2016 for Obama.
Mayor Bloomberg needs to stop being a quack doctor and do something about NYC’s infrastructure which is falling apart. He needs to get rid of the homeless and reduce crime (it still exists although you would never know it from Bloomie’s press releases), he needs to get rid of that stupid open mall at Times Square which frustrates taxi drivers, buses and trucks and, most of all, he needs to LEAVE THE ORDINARY TAXPAYER ALONE!
Actually, I have a friend who is the head of a public hospital in mid-town. I’d just love to see Bloomberg tell HIM what to do! My friend is not afraid of anyone, especially a tin-pot dictator.
If the ER doc had only wrote a script for a day or two worth of pain meds, considering how long it took to be seen by the ortho, I might have likely ended up back at the ER, missed more than 4 days of work and would have suffered needlessly. Just saying.
**
Problem is, there is a MILE WIDE difference between you and the type of patients who seek drugs everyday at our hospitals. As a new RN, as i was shocked — many of them literally just focus their lives on getting admitted and getting a hit of dilaudid or whatever the drug is they seek. It’s unreal.
I’m for this, as our nation’s true drug seekers need to find another way to keep themselves occupied. Once Obamacare hits, there will be no funds for their habits. OR, he’ll give them what they want and deny painkillers to those who truly need them ...esp old white guys who need them.
I agree with you that way too many people abuse ER’s in that manner. But with that being said and the other side of the coin, I and people I know have had experiences where we’ve been very sick with bronchitis and or a sinus infection or pneumonia and called our doctor’s office to make an appointment, describing just how ill we are and been told “Sure, we can see you – the earliest appointment is a week from tomorrow.” When telling them “I can’t wait that long”, I have been told, “You should go to the ER then”. Or some are sick during a weekend or a long holiday weekend when the regular doctor’s office is closed.
Some hospitals now run Urgent Care walk-in clinics that are separate from the ER and don’t take ambulances and life threatening cases and they are great for those situations when you can’t get in to see your regular doc but aren’t “critical” and they typically aren’t billed like an ER visit. There are also privately run Urgent Care clinics that fill that need but they require either insurance (if they are even part of your insurance company’s plan, when I was working for a company in Maryland but living in PA, my insurance plan didn’t cover a lot of doctors or walk-in clinics in PA but did cover ER visits) or cash payment up front.
But unless I have absolutely no other choice and can't wait a week or more to see my PCP, I avoid hospital ER’s like the plague.
His list of ‘targets’ is longer than a 1,000-sheet roll of Scott’s TP; he’s only gotten started. Once he’s declared **Mayor For Life***, he’ll get earnest. Glad I left that lib-dem shithole 25yrs ago.
Obama is planning to implement the Assault Weapons Ban (at a maximum) or the Magazine Ban (at a minimum), WITHOUT involving Congress or the Senate.. If he is willing to completely upend the legislative process, what makes you believe he's willing to leave office???
Yes I do get it.
I sense “2016” when instead of Obama leaving as he is supposed to, it could be the begining of a second American civil war, no doubt, if one is not underway by then.
I recognize this is a very real problem but then I liken this to the arguments for gun control. Are their people who use guns irresponsibly and or in the commission of crimes? Yes. But should we outlaw or severely restrict gun ownership just because a very few do this when the vast majority of gun owners are responsible and never commit any crimes? We should punish people who commit crimes, not the people who don’t.
It is IMO, the same with pain killers. Sure there are drug addicts but there are also people with chronic painful conditions and late stage cancer patients for instance who need pain killers to function, don’t abuse them, are not addicts and are made to needlessly suffer because of those people who illegally seek drugs; we are “criminalizing” pain meds and the people who do really need them and are not addicts and criminals. Punish the criminal, not outlaw or criminalize the drug.
I’m for this, as our nation’s true drug seekers need to find another way to keep themselves occupied. Once Obamacare hits, there will be no funds for their habits. OR, he’ll give them what they want and deny painkillers to those who truly need them ...esp old white guys who need them.
So you are for more government regulation in our lives? Do you really want to place more restrictions on doctors who are ethically and responsibly caring for their patients because of a few who don't? As far as Obama, I recall him saying something to the effect of “Granny needs an expensive hip replacement? Maybe it would be better for her to just take a pain pill”. Of course you are probably right in that no grannies will get hip replacements under Obamacare but only welfare grannies and Holder’s people will be able to get pain meds.
I can empathize with your sceanrio as I have spent 9 weeks flat out on my back and literally unable to even walk to the bathroom on my own. In my case I too went through an ER visit and it was determined I had literally sprained my back.
When I followed up with the ortho to make an appt. a few days later I told them my situation via the ER. The doctor saw me the next day. Sometimes, you have to tell the appt. maker the crisis level. If I would have had to wait? Yeah...it would have been another trip to the ER for more pain meds. or a demand from my doctor’s office to at least review the ER records and refill the script until our appointment time.
Now, with the new electronic records their supposed to have access too, some of this kind off stuff should be able to be eliminated.
their=they’re
Points noted. However, another thing that complicates this, is the “rule” in healthcare (and it’s a relatively new rule, all having to do with the newer trends in “patient centered” care ....Pain is whatever the patient says it is ....so, if they are saying they’re in pain (and maybe 1/10 is really faking it), you HAVE to treat them.
You can buy all sorts of painkillers “on the street”. You don’t need to go to an ER to get them.
This is already going on in lots of places. Those entitled to free ER care (i.e. the homeless) are major offenders in getting the drugs and selling them. In Orlando, they are forced to take those types of meds before leaving the hospital.
While I agree that this is, for the most part, a common sense move, it should be done by individual hospital policy, not another blanket edict by a despotic leftist. I know, despotic leftist is redundant.
Even when Bloomberg does something right (very rare) it’s done the wrong way.
Another example of the new Amerika where our overlords restrict the rights and privileges of the responsible majority to (theoretically) protect a minority of dubious value.
Pain and pain tolerance is rather subjective and as far as I know, there is no diagnostic test that can reliably confirm how much pain any patient is really feeling. Some people have a high tolerance for pain where as others have a much lower threshold. But a good experienced diagnostician however should be able to detect a faker.
For instance, when I went to the ER for my severe back pain the doctor asked a lot of questions and had me lay on my back and then lifted my legs and moved them in different positions to determine my pain level and whether or not I was faking it. He had me move in certain positions and asked me to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10. If I had been faking it and just seeking pain meds, I would have answered at least an 8 or more every single time but with a “slipped disc” some movements would be relatively painless while others would result in severe pain. The doc was able to determine that I wasn’t faking my pain based on my reactions. While a very good faker could fool some doctors, an experienced doctor is usually able to tell if someone is faking pain where there shouldn’t be any.
I recognize this is a very real problem but then I liken this to the arguments for gun control. Are their people who use guns irresponsibly and or in the commission of crimes? Yes. But should we outlaw or severely restrict gun ownership just because a very few do this when the vast majority of gun owners are responsible and never commit any crimes? We should punish people who commit crimes, not the people who don’t.
It is IMO, the same with pain killers.
Amen to all that!
Sure there are drug addicts
Why do we even want to treat them as criminals - where's the justification or benefit?
this has been going on for a long time in most hospitals in the country, they all know who the drug seekers are and have do not give any narco’s to these people lists. saw this in the 70’s in san diego.
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