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
We’re all draftees in the War on Drugs.
I notice they don’t say. Leg crushed in an industrial accident? Here, take two aspirin.
See post 37.
“This is stupid. I have been on many of those painkillers over the years and was always able to stop taking them.”
Same here. No addition about it.
Is C. diff fun?
It applies to everything they get their tentacles into — example: Obamacare.
Instead of helping the less fortunate up, they bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator. Oh, and then they keep what is left of it that is still good for themselves after they have destroyed it.
Yes, I worked with a guy like that. Totally useless. Came to work late, sweat profusely when he was high and fell asleep on the job.
Opioids are about the toughest drug to get off of. I’ve read stories where hypes went right back to the needle after 20 years of sobriety like it was yesterday.
We have a horrendous problem here with heroin usage by young kids. And this is a relatively well off suburban area.
Have a customer who has an apt. in his basement for his brother in law who is hooked pain pills for a back issue he won’t take care of.
The guy sits on the couch like a zombie.
I told the customer that he’s risking the safety of his entire family with this guy. He likes playing with knives and more than one night he’s woken up to see the BIL in the doorway of his bedroom in the middle of the night.
Stuff upstairs is also starting to disappear.
I agree.
I’ve had chronic pain in my feet since two surgeries to take the fascia out of both feet, nerves torn left and right. I have taken Oxycontin 20 mg for 12 years. I am NOT addicted. I hate them because of the opiate bowel thing. Some days I don’t take any. Some days I use two. Once in the morning and once at night. I only take them when the pain level is near 8. Once it reaches 10 it takes a lot longer for it to calm down. I have not increased my dosage. (20mg is fine)
Truth be told a friend brought me a joint and it does give me relief from the pain. I live in Florida. From what I understand this state was a pill mill sanctuary a few years ago. Now there are big signs in doctors offices. “we do not prescribe opioids”. This last time I went for my refill he put me on Gabapentin which is supposed to reduce pain in DIABETICS. My blood sugar is fine, thank you. Gave me a months supply of Oxy20 as well. Gabapentin caused blurry vision and wife said I was acting delusional. Stopped taking it.
It has been an interesting two years here. Med MJ on ballot.
The CIA and DEA are rejoicing. They will have new targets of prosecution and more revenue from the drug importation protection racket.
As legitimate pain patients find fewer legal options to control their pain, they will inevitably turn to the streets and find whatever “treatment” is available.
No matter. Most people don’t have severe pain so they can shrug it off and sanctimoniously exhort those with chronic pain to suck it up and deal with it.
Oh no let me tell you. Kidney stones? You’ll eventually scream or jump from a bridge. How about dental pain? I have seen mashed up limbs from runaway use of a grinder or snowmobile crash.
That kind of pain is beyond the imagination of people posting here.
Blocks are awesome but I don’t think they’re going to want to do those every few days.
Still waiting to hear about the other options.....no one is posting them.
How about pain that really isn’t due to injury in the tissue that feels the pain — pinched back nerve from a herniated disk. Nothing like it.
When a person is in that kind of pain, or like yours, amputation of the offending limb is a viable option although that may not fix original problem.
hospital emergency room
My wife has stage 4 breast cancer which has metastasized to her bones. She's responded so well to treatment that she no longer has pain, and told her oncologist that she wanted to stop taking hydrocodone, lest she become addicted. The doctor gave her a surprised look and said, "so what if you're addicted? You've got cancer!"
It seems to me that the biggest problem with addiction is that the addict can't get the drugs, because they've been made illegal, because people might get addicted.
I can see why an emergency room would do this so they don't have to deal with addicts.
Right on.... I have severe allergies and they put the decongestants behind the pharmacy counter, where I have to show ID to get them. This, of course was to shut down meth labs. I read in the news that the meth labs are still being found and shut down... All it did was inconvenience allergy suffers like me. I quit taking them.
People who get addicted generally have personality issues and stresses that are relieved by the substance. They continue to take it because they want to, not because there's anything magical in the substance that forces them to indulge in a complex pattern of behaviors. They want to do it because, in their particular cases, it either makes them feel good, or prevents them feeling bad.
I saw the post. I’m confused as to why you pointed it out to me.
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