HFM responds to drug deaths lawsuit
Another situation where BIG NUMBERS are quoted… so that they can SOUND BAD…
If you use the “minimum of 400 pts” and abt 15 month period.. and 19,250 prescriptions… if you do the math… that would amount to abt an average of 3+ Rxs/person/month… presuming that each was for a 30 day supply … if you figure that appropriate therapy for chronic pain pts would include a long acting and a short acting opiate… that would account for between 50% -66% of all those prescriptions.
I find it amazing that they know EXACTLY how many Rxs were written… but .. make a GUESS of how many pts the prescriber was seeing/prescribing for.
How many chronic pain pts take – on average – more than 3 Rxs/month ?
MANITOWOC – Holy Family Memorial President and CEO Mark Herzog has given a written statement in response to a lawsuit against Holy Family Memorial Hospital Pharmacy and 13 other defendants, including Dr. Charles Szyman, a doctor who was accused earlier this year of over-prescribing painkillers while he worked for Holy Family Memorial Hospital.
“Holy Family Memorial has a 117-year history of care rooted in our core values of stewardship, excellence and respect,” Herzog said in his statement. “Our hospital and employees are committed to providing compassionate care to all those we serve. We believe this does not overshadow all of the other incredible work we do and the care we provide. Our focus remains on helping patients and serving the community.”
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 4 by nine plaintiffs and alleges Szyman caused the deaths of Heidi Buretta, Monica Debot, Mark Gagnon and Alan Eggert through his practice of prescribing narcotics.
Buretta, Debot and Eggert died from mixed drug toxicity, while Gagnon died from injuries linked to his use of narcotic pain medication. All four were prescribed high dosages of painkillers by Szyman, the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit states, “Over the course of more than a decade, Dr. Charles Szyman began engaging in the practice of prescribing narcotic pain medication to patients at a level far beyond any medically legitimate, reasonable, or recognized level with said practice falling outside the standard of care which any reasonable doctor would exercise under the same or similar circumstances.”
The lawsuit also alleges employees of Holy Family Memorial Hospital Pharmacy knew about Szyman’s practice of over-prescribing pain medications, but did nothing to stop it and continued to fill the prescriptions, which generated millions of dollars in revenue for the hospital.
The complaints came as Szyman faces 19 charges of drug trafficking, which he pleaded “not guilty” to in June. If convicted, Szyman could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison per charge.
In an earlier USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin report, Lt. Dave Remiker, of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Metro Drug Unit, said Szyman was likely working with at least 400 patients before he was indicted. The indictment from June 21 lists 19,520 drugs prescribed by Szyman between Nov. 21, 2013, and Feb. 10, 2015.
Szyman worked with Holy Family Memorial Hospital as a pain specialist until his medical license was suspended Oct. 21, 2015, by the state Department of Safety and Professional Services Medical Examination Board. He was terminated from his position with Holy Family Memorial Hospital as a result of the suspension.
Filed under: General Problems
Just more of the CDC scaring people to make them do what they want them to do even if there is no law broken.maybe we should take their alcohol away it kills far more people. If they are so concerned about the public safety maybe they are not being honest with the people …ya think ..bullys
Here we go…..CDC standards of care creep……lawsuits
I use 7-9 scripts per month as I’ve other medical issues, do they do tox screen to show what pts die from? In my experience as an RN that would be a NO! Why do they continue to exaggerate the numbers & use words like ” outside normal medical practice?” Do they know the pts chronic illnesses? No they don’t nor do they know theirs or our chronic illnesses, do they? We’re about to let them know how wrong they are. Not only the DEA but, tell some good ones real soon as we’ve got some great names for them and others responsible for all the incorrect data at the Rally10/22/16. Tell the DEA to STOP shutting down OUR DOCTORS