A Senate panel will hear complaints on Wednesday from nursing home operators, doctors, nurses and pharmacists that a Drug Enforcement Administration narcotics crackdown has left seriously ill patients crying for pain relief.
The D.E.A. says it is merely enforcing the law that requires pharmacies to wait for prescriptions that are signed by physicians before dispensing potent painkillers like Vicodin, Percocet and morphine.
But the nursing home groups say the new enforcement rules upend many years of practice in which the government informally allowed nurses to speed the process by taking doctors’ orders orally, or from medical charts, and passing them along to pharmacies, similar to the procedures used in hospitals.
The delays “leave vulnerable, frail patients to struggle through unimaginable pain for hours and even days, while physicians, nurses and pharmacists struggle to collect required D.E.A. paperwork,” the group says in a report to be released on Wednesday to coincide with the hearing.
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U.S. Drug Move Said to Deprive Elderly
Drugs are supposed to provide pain/disease relief; not kill!
ReplyDeleteOverall, I don't believe it. I believe the nursing home industry uses drugs to control and silence their inmates and that's their purpose here.
ReplyDeleteI have to wonder if their concerns of "delays" are really based on the patients best interest. Now, consider how these same delays could benefit many of those vulnerable citizens if the courts didn't just move aheard and appoint guardians and fiduciaries without proper notification and due process, then allowing them to operate with no accountability! This system stinks. People better wake up and shout for reform!
ReplyDeleteBonnie J. Zabel, RN needs to recognize herself, "the circumstances of nursing home staffing." Many nursing homes operate understaffed to make more money. They have the same person serving meals, cleaning rooms and passing meds. The staff is overworked, underpaid and some of them may just prefer to hand out anti-psychotic drugs to make there a job a bit easier!
ReplyDeleteIn this day and age a doctor surely has a cell phone, computer, pager, etc. Sounds like BS to me!
If Ms. Zapel wants to be a doctor I suggest she go back to med school!
I might believe the nursing home industry more if I felt they did a good job, but it's all about most nursing homes making money rather than nursing or providing a place people can call home.
ReplyDeleteSo, no sell.