Posted on 06/17/2009 11:16:48 AM PDT by Baladas
Does your mother know you are using the computer again?
I don't agree with that statement... and most of the Dr's I've worked with over the years, would too. If we even "smell" a rat like that....the Docs will order tests and refuse to administer narcotics until they are certain the complaint is legitimate. If it's a known abuser, it's their responsibility to blow the whistle and call authorities.
lol
I don’t know where you work, but believe me, it’s plenty easy to get narcotics from the hospitals and at the hospitals out here in Phoenix.
I suspect it’s the same all over. I’ve been a nurse for a long time. Seen it for years and years. As for turning them in to the authorities, that’s against confidentiality.
I've been a nurse for 25 yrs. I worked the floors for 15 of those years. I'm now in hospice.
They're pretty savvy about the drug-seekers here in Texas. It "used to be" easy to get drugs from hospitals, but since the implementation of crosswalk pharmaceutical internet hooks, they can track you. The DEA monitors narcotics like crazy.....and the Dr's eventually get called when they see a patient is having excessive and untimely refills of a particular narc.
Besides, a Dr has the discretion always... not to order narcotics if he feels it is medically unnecessary. If your hospital is putting pressure on them to prescribe out of fear of lawsuits.....the Dr's need to grow a pair and tell the administration it's not their license on the line....and to back off. I know of 2 Dr's who had their prescription pads yanked for doling out narcs indiscriminately.
A couple years ago..my best friend's wayward sister was caught going from small town Dr. to small town Dr to get Vicodin. She thought she wouldn't get caught if they were filled at different pharmacies. It took them 6 months to trace it all....but she was arrested, put into a Rehab/Psych unit for 3 days.....then packed off to jail.
Unfortunately it does. Every ED has their frequently fliers. And the patients will spread it around themselves. They will go to one ED for a week or two, then move on to the next one eventually coming full circle, then repeat it all over again. They know the law - legally they are entitled to a full evaluation of what ever their claim is. That generally means a warm (or cool) room to hang out in for a couple of hours, with a tv/food/nursing staff to wait on you. If you appear to be in pain, it can even mean IV narcotics (at least until the staff gets to know you better) Beats passing out under the bridge any day.
Even better. People who call the ambulance for transport to Grady Hospital in downtown Atlanta, just to get a ride to downtown.
I’m not really sure why they prescribe so much narcotics, but they do. The hospital is always encouraging us to medicate and ask them if they want pain medicine.
Asking a drug addict if he wants a narcotic is like asking the Pope if he’s Catholic.
When they leave they get prescriptions for their drugs of choice. The doctors ASK them what they want for a prescription. It’s beautiful, if your an addict.
Wish they would follow Texas’s example. Good moves by them.
There was a big kick about pain mgmt. a few years back and everyone tried to jump on the bandwagon. The motto was "if the patient tells you they're in pain...they ARE". I'm sure it stemmed from someone winning a lawsuit who maintained they weren't properly medicated. This sounded good to the powers that be... but it very quickly got out of hand.
When I first started nursing, we had a lady who made the rounds of area hospitals to get a fix for her addiction to Demerol. She had legitimate physical problems, but not a legitimate need for demerol. Her legs, arms and buttocks were so calcified.. you'd swear the needle was going to break, just trying to give her an injection.
Anyway, the nurses all got together and raised objections to using the med/surg floor like a rehab center or junkie house... so the Dr's started rerouting our "regulars" to psych units where they'd be given methadone and dried out. If they couldn't reroute, they'd give them a lesser drug in ER and tell them to see their family physician the next day. The Dr's rarely sent anyone home with a script for more than a few pills.
If AZ hospitals are that bad... maybe staff could pressure Administrators to change the rules?
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