Hospitals toughen ED limits on painkiller prescriptions

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem.news.service1 at gmail.com
Thu Mar 7 23:08:17 PST 2013


 
February 25, 2013
 
Hospitals toughen ED limits on painkiller prescriptions
 
 
Fierce Healthcare


By Julie Bird

Efforts to curb prescription drug abuse at hospital emergency departments appear to be spreading, as more hospitals sharply restrict their use of opioids to treat patients complaining of pain.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced last month that patients at public hospitals would no longer be able to get painkillers like Oxycontin or methadone, and could receive no more than three days' worth of drugs including Vicodin or Percocet, The New York Times reported. Lost or stolen prescriptions cannot be refilled, according to the new guidelines.

Meanwhile, at McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, Utah, patients with chronic, recurrent conditions such as musculoskeletal pain, toothaches, kidney stones or migraines will first be offered non-narcotic medications, Ogden's Standard-Examiner reported today.

"No one should come to the emergency department with any expectation that they will receive pain medication," Janet Smith, emergency department director at Ogden Regional Medical Center, told the newspaper. "Misuse and abuse can cause serious medical and psychological complications."

McKenzie Health System in Sandusky, Mich., announced this weekend it would establish the first Oxy-free EDs in the state. Drugs including Oxycontin and Oxycodone would no longer be provided to chronic-pain sufferers, the hospital system said.

"We will try to control a patient's chronic pain with non-narcotic medications, and just as important, we will direct the patient toward resources that can help them achieve a long term solution for their chronic pain condition," Emergency Department Medical Director Mark Hamed said Sunday in a statement.

In a similar move last summer, hospitals in Milwaukee County, Wis., said they would stop offering Oxy in their EDs over the ensuing months, with an ED in nearby Racine also considering such restrictions, Oak Creek Patch reported in July.X
 
 
 
 
Bryan Sloane
Deputy Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service
 
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editor, CAL/AAEM News Service

Contact us at: calaaem.news.service1 at gmail.com

For more articles, visit our archives. 

To unsubscribe from this list, visit our mail server.

Copyright (C) 2012. The California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (CAL/AAEM). http://www.calaaem.org. All rights reserved.

CAL/AAEM, a nonprofit professional organization for emergency physicians, operates the CAL/AAEM News Service solely as an educational resource for physicians. Dissemination of an article by CAL/AAEM News Service does not imply endorsement, agreement, or recommendation by CAL/AAEM News Service, CAL/AAEM, or AAEM.

Follow CAL/AAEM on Facebook and Twitter:
 
     
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/attachments/20130307/bedad307/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image007.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 19903 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/attachments/20130307/bedad307/attachment-0003.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image008.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 941 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/attachments/20130307/bedad307/attachment-0004.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image009.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 885 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/attachments/20130307/bedad307/attachment-0005.jpg 


More information about the CALAAEM mailing list