Every Other Patient Was Looking For Narcotics
Laura a new RN, fresh out of college, went into complete shock when she first entered the field, working at a regular clinic with numerous doctors. It was unbelievable as to the number of patients seeking prescription narcotics. It was literally every other patient. Some patients had a very good reason for it, but the majority of patients were simply addicted (or selling them) and willing to do just about anything to get the prescription.
She admitted she also had no idea how many “twins” existed in the world. Often times when she had to tell a patient we couldn’t fill their prescription because records show that another doctor in the state filled the 30 day supply just two days ago, their response would be, “It was my twin. They stole my identity.” Some would even claim that their pain pills were stolen. Both scenarios really do legitimately happen, but when the same people are continuously coming up with some kind of drama, reason or excuse, then that’s usually a sign there’s a problem. What some people don’t realize is that doctors and pharmacies report each and every narcotic prescription to the state. Doctors have access to this report and can pull it at any time.
Troubled teens weren’t the problem in this case. It was actually grown ups usually between the ages of 20-45.
The problem progressively got so bad, that this particular clinic completely stopped prescribing narcotic prescriptions. They even stopped carrying the injections for migraines. Instead, the clinic started giving out information of pain management clinics, etc. The strongest painkiller they would give was Tylenol 3.
Relevant Tags:narcotics, pain management, prescriptions
