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 just don't know how the previous generations got by without Percocet or lortab....maybe they were just tougher,better people?
I appreciate what you are saying about morphine.
I’ve had 9 surgeries in my life, 4 major, 3 abdominal. I react to anesthetic and can never decide whether I’ll puke or pass out from the pain.
For one abdominal, I was under the knife for 5.5 hours and ended up on a morphine drip. What I really remember, other than puking and my guts on fire, was that people from work came to visit me and made me laugh. Oh boy, that hurt.
It was the second surgery that got to me, what with the morphine. I became convinced that the hospital staff were torturing a woman down the hall-who did turn out to be in a semi-psych room of some type. I hallucinated little critters and blotches. I got off that stuff as soon as I could, even while walking the hospital halls to get my legs under me again.
I’ve been debating joint surgery the last two years. I just don’t want the pain of it. I have gone from needing oxy to hydrocodone to tramadol and now, nothing. I think my mind is just fed up with the idea of pain meds for the joints when walking.
narcotics are of limited value for many pain issues, really...
what really works is Naprosyn...but you have to be careful with that too due to possible kidney problems...
gee people, who the heck ever said life was pain free?
hospitals and doctors are trying to HELP by not prescribing so many of these drugs...
in case you haven't noticed, there is an epidemic of legal drug use, and it also involves criminal activity when these people can't get it thru the doc...
not to mention when the oxy's or hydros are gone, these people turn to heroin....we had three young people in my middle size city die in separate incidents from heroin overdose.....all in one night...
nsaids work well for arthritic type pain....Physical therapy does work if you give it a chance...physical exercise like walking is very helpful and losing weight has so many benefits for pain control...
you know what ....all the drug lovers on this thread are in such a panic that they won't get their fix and yet they tell us they are not addicted...right....me thinks people doth protest too much...perhaps, people are more addicted than they want to admit...
You’re wrong dear
Every medicinal pain Med that works is opiodal or opiodal derived
Ultram is trash
Anything else is a nerve blocker and has its own side effects
I’ve been dealing with this a while
6-7 years
Steroids and opiods
You either take them responsibly so they work or you overdo it and they become ineffective
We don’t all do the latter
come on now....you can speak for your father...stop acting like hospitals or nursing homes are some evil killing stations and you have no say.....at any time you can ask the nursing home doctor for more pain or anxiety relief for your dad.....quit blaming well meaning people....
Opiod use has risen with the median age rise especially old old
Big shock
Anti anxiety meds use way up too
Women
Women despite all the attention paid to their needs by the media and culture remain even less happy and fulfilled and able to cope with life’s pressures
So they medicate
One of my closest buds was a local owned druggist who just sold out to Walgreens
I have helped on a few days just doing front store business
Those are my observations about who gets what dope
And a third subculture....the disabled social security crowd
They milk the system to resell Medicare and Medicaid pain killers and hypnotics to pay their bills because they are too lazy or effed up to work
That is the only drug problem in this deal
what's interesting is that so many here think hydrocodone and oxycodone are all good drugs without any side effects....ridiculous...
Narcotics make me itch. Like mad.
The first thing I had them do when I got ahead of the pain after my c sections was pull the morphine drip. I’d rather hurt than itch.
Last section though I thought I’d discovered pain management nirvana. Toradol.
5 days after I was discharged from the hospital I was readmitted with kidney failure. And the nephrologist and pain management guys both told me never to take NSAID’s again.
So, no NSAID’s, no narcotics. Guess people like me just hurt with no relief in that hospital.
I’m sorry.
I am so, so sorry.
Yes, there is drug abuse all around us, but there is a legitimate use of opioids for pain management...
“come on now....you can speak for your father...stop acting like hospitals or nursing homes are some evil killing stations and you have no say.....at any time you can ask the nursing home doctor for more pain or anxiety relief for your dad.....quit blaming well meaning people....”
I don’t blame people. I blame process. Three days ago he came down with shingles. the pain from that combined with his COPD pain made things worse. They can only give you so much pain meds per hour. Once it wears off you have to wait. I know the Tylenol was a poor stop gap and there was nothing else they could do, and that is what pisses me off.
They could have given him Vicodin in between his morphine, but they said they are not allowed to do that. I was going to bring him my own supply of Vicodin but that violates the agreement with the home.
As for well meaning people, unfortunately some are, some aren’t. Three times they “forgot” to reconnect him with his oxygen supply. At that point I had to move him to a new facility. Their excuse? Quote, “They aren’t an oxygen friendly facility.”
Well a broad brush stroke such as “narcotics” may be an accurate statement as not all narcotics are used in the relief of chronic pain.
W/O opioid pain killers, hundreds of thousands if not millions of people would have their quality of life dramatically diminished. I have seen it first hand.
My dad and F-n-law live with chronic pain, two very different causes. My F-n-law will resist as long as he can by not taking his pain medication and suffers to the point of tears. It's all he can think about...is the pain.
He’z an old timer, doesn't want to take the meds. He’z got it in his head that they are addictive and he'd become an addict. Just a spell after we finally convince him to take his pain killers...he is able to function, his mood improves, he is able to be with the family comfortably. He still says the pain is there, the level of pain is reduced to the point he can concentrate on life.
Do NOT flush old meds, even in septic system. They will end up in the water coming from your tap !
Of course. How many people know this.
Of course. How many people know this.
Pain medication, when used properly, is very useful. I should know — it was prescribed to me after my back surgery. And no, I didn't become addicted and interestingly I ended with several bottles of unused pain meds because I stopped using it when I had recovered. So, see it does work and it is a useful tool.
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