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
Wonder how many people know or realize this.
Or when a crack head needs to get rid of his stash because the cops are banging at this door...
I wonder how much of this is floating around in our water system that we are are consuming. Scary. Especially for children.
Individuals should be responsible for their own actions, and there's no substitute for effective pain relief.
I'd choose a different ER, because it's always good to have the most options.
What works, works.
Your in-laws probably made their own choices.
I had rotator cuff surgery and got the pump too. They are preprogrammed at the hospital, and difficult to hack.
I wanted to make it last 3 days rather than 2, and had to partially disassemble it to make that happen.
I succeeded, and committed a felony in the process.
You can buy pills off Craigslist and have them delivered to your house?
That’s nuts!
I wonder if they do that for pot, too.
Marijuana is medicine no matter if some folks disapprove. There are antiinflamatories and stuff that reduces pain like aspirin in MJ.
All the terpenes in MJ serve some type of medical use, and in CO they even sell MJ specifically for certain maladies. They even have a strain for kids who have uncontrollable seizures - it has zero THC.
PS: eschew the Gabapentin; that stuff sucks. For several years I was prescribed it for leg cramps and it gradually lost its’ efficacy. I went to an acupuncturist who cured me in 1 day, and I never took those horrible pills ever again.
This entire seemingly national conversation about this topic needs to remove old people from the equation. It's a TOTALLY different deal with old people. It's not the same. Young people do not understand the pains in aging and that come with age (I know I didn't have a clue for decades.) To lump the elderly into this conversation is just wrong. Though I do think it's intentional. When you control someone's pain, you control them. I think it's part of Obama (and those like him) plan for the elderly. Suffer enough chronic pain and you'll choose death over it.
This industry makes money off your pain. It's not in their interest for your pain to go away, even if opioids are indicated and work.
Lol. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.
With modern technology and modern chemistry, it seems that the pharmas could design a pain med that does a much better job instead of relying on a med that has “been with us since the beginning of time.”
The current choice of pain meds don’t do the job and can cause addiction. Two strikes.
Unbelievable! The worst pain I ever had in my life was when I had pleurisy, it took an hour to crawl from my bed to the phone to call the ambulance, the 2nd worst pain was when I had my aneurism.
They gave me large doses of oxycontin in both cases, and I don’t know what i would have done without that, at least for the day I was in the ER.
I was in such pain that I literally was screaming and about to either vomit or pass out.
What would they have me do, with this policy? Drink a slug of whiskey and bite on a pencil??
Ed
Yeh what happened to morphine drip? You are not going to get addicted in a day or two.
Lets all suffer pain because a few become addicted. Let them go to rehab if they really want to get off the meds. Many people are under medicated for pain because the government makes them fearful of giving drugs...
I have had pleurisy and it is painful....you better no cough or worse yet sneeze. Pain medication while it was healing and no problem stopping them when I got better..
Actually you do have a mild addiction. However, you are obviously not psychologically addicted. This is okay as you do not need increasing doses to take care of the pain and do not like the way it makes you feel.
My father was a chopper pilot and broke his back in a crash. He was totally physically addicted to codeine for pain control. He was not psychologically addicted. Once the pain was under control he got off the codeine. He did not need it any more.
I donated half my liver to my brother. The surgery required them to cut all my abdominal muscles from below my sternum to above my belly button and to the lateral edge of my ribcage. I was effectively filleted like a fish.
The postop pain was horrible. I took massive amounts of morphine for a few days for pain. I needed the morphine for pain. I hated the way it made me feel. As soon as I could endure the pain I instructed the nurses and physicians to reduce the dosage.
If your description of your use of Oxycodone is accurate which I feel it is, you do not have a problem even though you may have a marginal addiction.
Relative to the bowel problems with opiates I am particularly susceptible to this also. Post Op the almost had to cut me open again as I had an illus induced by the morphine. I asked the Doc what I had to do. He said get up and walk as that helps the problem. I was exhausted and in pain. For two days I would walk the wards. I would make three rounds in about 30 minutes and then lay down for about 30 minutes and continued the same for two days. I was exhausted and in pain but sure as hell did not want them to cut me open again.
Opiates are good for people that need them but they must be used with discretion. I am a pharmacist and know of which I speak.
Registered pharmacist State of Texas.
If you ever want any information on drug therapy as a fellow freeper my advice is here for the asking.
Awesome visualization.
Same thing with me...
See ya’,
Ed
finally the recognition that human beings do not always act responsibly and that drugs, even legal ones, are a menace....
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