Four cities file lawsuit against Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations
CHARLESTON – Four West Virginia cities have filed a lawsuit against the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations, alleging its misinformation of dangerous pain management standards encouraged the over-prescription of opioids in the state.
The JCAHO sets standards and certifies virtually every health care organization in the United States and West Virginia. Certification is viewed by health care organizations as critical to their continued operation, according to the Nov. 2 lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
Charleston, Huntington, Ceredo and Kenova claim in 2001, JCAHO announced a new set of pain management standards.
In a campaign to explain the standards, JCAHO spread misinformation about the addictive nature of opioids, which included statements such as, “Some clinicians have inaccurate and exaggerated concerns about addiction, tolerance and risk of death. This attitude prevails despite the fact there is no evidence that addiction is a significant issue when persons are given opioids for pain control,” according to the suit.
An April 13, 2016, letter signed by 61 health care professionals informed JCAHO that “the pain management standards continue to encourage unnecessary, unhelpful and unsafe pain treatments that interfere with primary disease management,” and “foster dangerous pain control practices, the endpoint of which is often the inappropriate provision of opioids with disastrous adverse consequences for individuals, families and communities,” according to the suit.
According to Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing (PROP), which built the coalition that sent the letter, JCAHO “responded defensively” and denied “any relationship between its pain management standards and opioid overprescribing.”
The lawsuit seeks class action status in part to enjoin JCAHO from enforcing its dangerous standards nationwide. It also seeks damages to remedy the impact of JCAHO’s continued promulgation and enforcement of the standards. The lawsuit is unique in its approach and is the product of ongoing, intensive research on how to stem the opioid epidemic plaguing West Virginia and the rest of the nation.
Huntington Mayor Steve Williams believes that this is the next logical step in the city’s role as a nationwide leader in the fight against opioid addiction.
“This lawsuit is a critical move toward eliminating the source of opioid addiction and holding one of the most culpable parties responsible,” Williams said. “For too long, JCAHO has operated in concert with opioid producers to establish pain management guidelines that feature the use of opioids virtually without restriction. The JCAHO standards are based on bad science, if they are based on any science at all.”
Williams said the cities need to take this opportunity to prevent a new generation of individuals from becoming addicted to opioids.
“At the same time, we need resources to help those who are suffering to recover and return to productive lives,” Williams said.
The plaintiffs are represented by special counsel Talcott Franklin P.C., The Webb Law Centre, PLLC, and City Attorney Scott Damron.
Filed under: General Problems
PROP is a dangerous terrorist organization which must be tried, convicted and sent to Siberia for a lifetime of hard labor upon which they will then become experts on chronic, intractable pain.
Please tell say that they are counter suing?
pss,,,,What these people,lawyers,klondyke,prop] have done,,is what all people do,,who,have evil/unkind lies/prejudice in their hearts,,,,They turned everything that was once good,and right,ie.,,that the medically ill in physical pain from their illness were to receive effective medical care to lessen their physical pain from their medical condition,,that is the right way to treat people humanely..Theses ,klondikes,prop,,lawyers have .taken this humane,proper way and turned it into something evil,by lies,by liars,by their falsehoods,prop-aganda,,For they are thee only ones who pockets are filled on the backs of the weakest in society,,the medically ill in physical pain..They have taken that weakenest,,and used it to bully all who truly are medically ill in physical pain and those who choose to help those less fortunate w/medicine designed to lessen physical pain from medical illness..These guys should be put to shame,,,not glorified as something good..For when has willfully hurting the medically ill,,,EVER a good thing??NEVER is it right to willfully harm,,the medically ill,,but that is exactly what these people are doing,willfully,,maryw
”A new generation,” really,,Watch it folks,,this means they want Pain management gone,,They really do,, ,thanks to klondike bar,,see all pain management patient as just addicts,,Not a forward step in the field of medicine to assure no-one is no-longer forced to suffer in physical pain anymore from painful medical condition!!!
Still nothing on that ,”committee they promised,,right??
Klondike has thru-out the years,,in his position in our government,has been sneaking/badwrapping all of painmanagement.Putting in government officials heads THRU-OUT THE YEARS,, that there is something called painmanagement,, guys,and its nothing more then a bunch of drug addicts and doctors acting as dealers,,,BUT I,,[klondyn] have a treatment/medicine in the works that will stop all this,,,,giving himself the advantage for profits off the backs of the medically ill..Klondike words are all,,A COMPLETE LIE ,by a liar,,but,,this is what he has done,,,OBVIOUSLY,,,and it has been effective..
They are taking us backwards in the field of medicine,truly,.,back to days of Pennhurst,,lock up the cripples in asylums,,paid for by taxpayer and fill up the pockets of men the likes of Klondike!!!
Whomever gets on this painmanagement committee NEEDS TO LEGIMITIZE ,THE CREDIBILITY OF PAINMANAGEMENT AGAIN!!
These lawsuits are truly just a example of klondyns HANDY- work..The lawyers only see the $$$$$ signs,,,not the truth ,,obviously..That painmanagement,the MEDICINES used are exactly that MEDICINES.,,A legitimate field of medicine,that moves the field of medicine forward,,and a country forward,by making us more HUMANE onto the medically ill..As every human rights group/council,,curiously except the ACLU,, has stated,,”Denial of access to effective physical pain relief is torture,,and again,,thee ONLY,,ONLY country that does not adhere to that definition of torture is the U.S.A,,,,,and that is WRONG!!!For 167 humane decent Nations have already done,,by adhereing to thee International Definition of Torture,,because it is right,,It is conducive to a forward thinking civilized ,humane society..America has got it WRONG,, this time around,,,,but the corrupt ones sure are getting rich aren’t they,,,,,maryw