America's worst municipal leader (and all-time pettiest authoritarian) sinks to a new low, deciding he is going to keep the little people from abusing painkillers.
Offer it up, advises Mayor Ratched:
"[S]o you didn’t get enough painkillers and you did have to suffer a little bit."
Brace yourselves: this is what is in store for the rest of us under Obamacare. Gotta bend that cost-curve downward, no matter who--quite literally--suffers.
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Dale, I rarely disagree with you but I have to this time. While I also strongly dislike that the decision was made by the mayor and not by the hospitals/MDs, after 19 years as an RN I can see the point of some of these measures. The emergency room is not a primary care practice, and giving 3 days of pain meds allows the patient a chance to contact their doctor and get an ongoing prescription if they need more pain meds. Standard practice among pain control clinics is not to replace lost or stolen prescriptions -- because they are very often actually prescriptions that have been filled already and/or sold. Patients who come into ERs lokking for long-acting pain control meds (oxycontin, fentanyl patches) have either failed to get their refills for these long-term meds in a timely fashion (which is the patient's responsibility) so they ran out on a weekend, or want the meds to abuse/sell, or if they truly have a new condition that requires one of these meds be started for the first time, IMO they need to be admitted at least overnight to monitor their response to it.
ReplyDeleteThose are good points, but my problem is best stated by the doctor quoted in the first link: "Medicine by legislation." It's a battle axe solution.
ReplyDeleteThat, and from what I have read (correct me if I'm wrong, please), pain management is a problem with American medicine in general. Anecdotally, I can speak to callous treatment of a family member who was suffering from what turned out to be terminal cancer, but was given short shrift on pain control.
I worry that the limitation mindset is likely to spread outside of the ER--and why not? Painkillers can be abused by people of means (e.g., Limbaugh).
Dale, I think you have good points, and maybe too many years in the ER made me cynical.
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