Posted on 03/31/2016 6:02:17 AM PDT by Wolfie
New Jersey hospital emergency room becomes first in U.S. to end use of opioid painkillers
PATERSON, N.J. -- St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center announced it has become the first hospital in the country to implement a program that will manage patients' pain in the emergency room without the use of opioid painkillers.
Painkillers most frequently used in the emergency room in the past were oxycodone, vicodin and percocet, according to Dr. Mark Rosenberg, the Emergency Department chair.
“Our job here together is to look at the whole equation and understand how we can stop people from going from a prescription, to an addiction,” he said.
About a half-mile down the road from St. Joseph’s, recovering addicts are lining up for treatment at Eva’s Village.
Demetria Washington said she started on pills before moving on to heroin.
“Then I couldn’t get to it no more and a girlfriend of mine was like well you could just try heroin. And I tried it and I liked it.”
She used drugs for 18 years, before entering recovery. She’s been clean for 8 years and currently works as a recovery specialist at Eva's.
“A lot of people use prescription drugs and then they end up turning to heroin,” she added.
Washington’s co-worker told us that she warns her son about the dangers of abusing prescription painkillers everyday.
“That’s what I tell my son because he’s seen me at my lowest point,” said Geraldine Lowe.
Lowe is also a recovering addict and a recovery specialist at Eva’s Village.
"As a matter of fact, and I’m not ashamed to say it, he was born addicted to drugs,” she said, adding that her son is now using pills.
America’s pill problem hits close to home, even for the head of St. Joseph's Emergency Department. Dr. Rosenberg said his mother-in-law recently broke her wrist.
“She went to the local emergency department without telling me, and she got 5 percocet and told to see her family doctor. Family doctor gave her a prescription for 100. She’s 93 years old. 100 percocet. The point being is we, our culture is such that it’s really, really out of control,” said Dr. Rosenberg.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, more people died from drug overdoses in 2014 than than in any year on record, beating out deaths caused by car crashes and guns. Heroin and painkiller abuse are driving this problem, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“In 2012, there were enough opioid prescriptions issued - nearly 260 million - to give every man, woman and child in the country their own bottle of pills,” said U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ).
Federal and local lawmakers, law enforcement and health officials met for several hours at St. Joseph’s today to discuss how to stem the tide of opioid addiction.
“Everybody is at this table that should be, except for a few other people. We need the pharmaceuticals here, because they're shoving drugs down our throats,” said U.S. Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ).
St. Joseph’s Emergency Department, one of the busiest in the nation, has already begun to treat over 250 patients with alternative medicine or treatments, who would have otherwise received opioids. While opioids will still be used by St. Joseph’s staff to treat chronic pain, they will no longer be the first line of treatment.
“We have to acknowledge the fact that opioids are an essential drug to managing people with severe pain, like cancer pain,” said Dr. Rosenberg.
Federal legislation known as the Comprehensive addiction and recovery act is currently pending that could provide federal grants to states and local governments to combat the national epidemic of heroin addiction and prescription painkiller abuse.
It passed the Senate this month, it has not been voted on in the house
I was on the NSAIDS and it was working until my face blistered and my lip swell up three times its size and my mouth broke out with ulcers...lol Dr gave me two 7.5 hydrocodone for the pain in my knees until they moved it to a Narcotic 2 and now I take a Tylenol 3 two times a day. Seems to work
Then, around 2005, “pain management” became the big thing. The idea was that only the patient could decide what pain was. If they said they were in pain, they were in pain. Consequently, pills were handed out like candy.
The fact is, sometimes you need strong pain killers and other times you do not.
I have to think that it's obvious when some is just seeking pills.
Well, cheap heroin is a big problem, at least regionally. What's amusing is that the politicians, always trying to look busy, are spending money to further regulate prescription pain medicine, using the (mostly false) idea that the CAUSE of explosive heroin addiction is bad prescribing of legal opioids.
I've been working in this field for forty years. What IS true is that heroin addicts will use pills if they can get 'em, and pill addicts will use heroin if the can't get their pills.
This has little to do with treatment of pain, except that it's an excuse for another government program and several thousand more government employees, plus many grant recipients who will show their gratitude on election day.
Maybe a more effective medication is the solution?
I was more or less talking about the intensity of the pain. Nothing like it. Can’t take morphine or pure codeine so derivatives is about it for me.
That is because honey child you have put regulations in place that make it necessary to get a new prescription every time you need a refill.
I was on Norco for several months. When they finally got around to fixing the problem (torn tendon) I stopped taking the pills.
I am sorry for the people that are "addicted" but I have to wonder, how many are "addicted" to the pills and how many are in serious pain and "addicted" to not feeling like a limb is being removed with a pry bar?
Actually, studies have shown NICOTINE to be the hardest drug to kick.
The last time I had NSAID’s for pain management in the hospital I ended up with kidney failure.
I’ve been told never to take them again.
Guess I’ll just be SOL then.
The juice of the poppy is one of the most commonly referenced but there are a number of other plants that will provide some relief.
So have I. The last surgery I had, I wasn’t given pain killers after I left the hospital. The doc had been in trouble for prescribing too many painkillers was the excuse. It was one of the worst weeks of my life. Consequently, I have put off having surgery that I need out of fear of the recovery period after I leave the hospital. The others procedures I have had prior to that last one, were no big deal thanks to period an, Vicodin, and the like. Shame on the abusers and the idiotic bureaucrats that make the rest of our lives miserable.
Please, no! It pollutes the water. Take them and deliver them in person unmarked to local PD for disposal. They burn them.
That is inexcusable. Interview a surgeon and ask about painkillers after the surgery.
Oh my - so sorry. Does he have an opinion?
I’ve always just tossed mine out in the garbage. The landfills are lined with concrete, so I don’t worry about seepage. If there is a leak, there are more problems than a couple of my old prescriptions.
No kidding. My man just had knee replacement surgery and he's on oxycodone. Can't imagine not having a drug that powerful. And when his last refill is finished that's the end of it.
Sadly, you’re right. I personally know 3 people who have died from abusing pain meds.
When I had shoulder surgery I missed 9 weeks of work. 3 times I was prescribed 90 hydro codone pills. As my time being laid up was coming to an end I had to ween myself off them. In the last month the pills no longer killed the pain. I was only taking them to keep from feeling deathly ill.
He has an opinion on everything. He says he has 44 days left. That’s the number of days left until my son graduates college. The pain just gets worse and the minute they put him into twilight, that’s it. So he is hanging on’, but still complaining. To quote him, “Tylenol?!?! WTF”
I recently had surgery which was quite painful and was prescribed these type of drugs for pain. I took a whopping total of three and then trashed the remainder and took regular Tylenol. Those three pills over a three day period clogged me up like a cheap toilet in a Chinese Ghost City apartment on the 50th floor!
I have had employees that worked for me over the years on these and watching them disintegrate in front of your eyes from funny, smart and beautiful women into hags in a stupor is sad. They lost their jobs and lives in the process.
Agreed. Nerve pain and damage is the worst (IMO).
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