Obviously this dr. Was a pcp and not a pain. Specialist. Which is a red flag for any pharmacy!! Understand acute pain but that patient should only need 28 tablets as a 7 day supply not 60-270 as most drs. Prescribe. He was continuing at a rate of a pain. Expert which prompted walmart to stop and investigate. The dr should have started referring his patients to specialist, then he wouldn’t be having this issue right now. As for the patients not being aware… the dr should have informed them that he was currently being blocked as shown above he did get a notification. He really has no right to file a lawsuit.
Walmart Pharmacy won’t fill Nevada Doctor’s patients’ prescriptions
The above comment in RED was posted by someone on the blog post on my blog linked above. I don’t know if this person is a pharmacist, another healthcare provider, a chronic pain pt or no idea of their background.
This post would seem to confirm the fact that some people believe that only certain medical specialists can treat pts who are dealing with chronic pain.
what most non-healthcare professionals don’t realize/understand is that most “freshly minted” healthcare professionals are – at best – minimally knowledgeable and competent and hopefully proficient enough not to do any harm to pts. These “freshly minted” healthcare professional’s skills and knowledge base is highly influenced by professors, instructors, medical literature and as they advance in their career… some/many will develop talents and skills that may be in conflict of what they were taught during their educational process, and that is not all bad.
Once the reason for a pt’s chronic pain is determined, and whatever can be done by to make physical changes.. via surgery, PT or some other corrective treatment. If all other options have been explored, the only type of treatment that remains as a option is some sort of medication(s), perhaps ice/heat, on going PT and such treatments.
There are not enough chronic pain specialists practicing that could even begin to handle even a minority of the total chronic pain population.
Many/most healthcare professions (doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other mid-level practitioners) will become very knowledgeable and/or specialize in one or more areas within their scope of practice/license.
Treating most subjective diseases (pain, mental health) is mostly a trial and error in finding the right cocktail of medications to optimize the pt’s quality of life.
Let’s look at what is typical – as pts have posted – for pain clinics… many will provide ESI’s ( Epidural Spinal Injection) using a medication (Depo-Medrol) that has huge caution of using such a drug in ESI’s and many countries have banned its use in ESI’s. Some/many will insist on the pt continuing to have ESI’s even though they are providing little/no relief and the pt is coerced to get this procedure in order so that the prescriber will provide the pt a Rx for oral opiates.
It is claimed that there are some 10 million ESI’s given every year in this country and that 5% of those pts will develop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnoiditis which is an extremely painful irreversible disease because of the ESI med accidentally being injected directly into the spinal fluid. There are other potential adverse events in receiving ESI’s including meningitis due to a contaminate med , compromised sterile field or poor sterile technique of the pain clinic staff.
Generally, providing a medical service/procedure that is not medically necessary is generally considered INSURANCE FRAUD.
Likewise many of these same pain clinics – that do implanted pain pumps – will use compounded opiates because they can purchase these compounded meds for 10% – 25% of the commercial morphine product ( Infumorph) which is the only opiate approved by the FDA to be used in implanted pumps.
So it would appear in this incident – and others that are coming to light – that WalMart is making some arbitrary decisions about the dose of opiates that some who are not “pain specialists” are providing chronic pain pts on a regular/scheduled basis.
Of course, most PCP would not venture out into the area of complex surgeries and most pts would not go down that path outside of an emergency, but how many pts have you heard about having “failed back surgery”… done my a SPECIALIST ?
Filed under: General Problems
Specialists should not be used for cases that can be managed by a GP as those who have complicated issues must wait longer. GPs who refer indiscriminately cost health systems more money.
The first time I read the part in red. I thought it was from an authorized staff member in the doctors office. That is the only way the person could have known if the doctor received correspondence about being blocked.
After reading the rest of the article. I reread the part in red. Now, I have no idea who wrote it.
jmo….MIND THEIR OWN FREAKEN BUSINESS!!FILL THE SCRIPT,,AS A DOCTOR SEE FIT,,,,AS IT USE TO BE,,,a pharmavist in my day,,,unless the combo would harm u,,,he filled the script,,,as the doctors write it..This is why this whole mess needs to go back to the way that worked,,,let doctors be doctors w/out government interference w/new b.s, policy’s,,like letting a pharmacist play doctor,,,jmo,maryw
maryw, Usually when a patients condition becomes chronic. The patient Is referred to a specialist. After the patient sees a specialist. Some PCP continue to treat some patients with chronic conditions. But it is up to the PCP which conditions they want to treat.