Across the nation, Pharmacists and other healthcare professionals are in a constant struggle on whether to fill pain medication prescriptions or not. How do we decide if this patient is really in pain? How do we decide if this medication was prescribed for a legitimate medical purpose?
I am a pharmacist in the state of Ohio, where pharmacists are 50% responsible for what happens to their patients--the other 50% liability falls on the prescriber. With that heavy weight on mine and many other pharmacists shoulders, do you blame us for being hesitant to fill prescriptions? Pharmacists are often given a bad reputation because there are those that either fill any narcotic that comes through their drive through window or they are the extreme opposite and lie through their teeth and say they are out of stock or cannot fill the patients prescription due to corporate policies.
The new clip below, which is from a local news channel in Las Vegas discusses one man's struggle, who is in real pain, to fill his prescriptions for pain medication.
While Pharmacist are often the gate-keeper or middle man between patients and their middle man, we often need to take step back and question "this patient may REALLY need this medication." Pill mills and pain clinics in which very little if any contact with the doctor are all over the country, whether we realize it or not. However, we need not be narrow minded and realize that there are a lot of people that suffer from chronic debilitating conditions and deserve fair treatment from us and not judgment as they often receive.
No comments:
Post a Comment