How Pharmacists Restrict Access To Pain Medications
http://www.wkrg.com/story/29128410/how-pharmacists-restrict-access-to-pain-medications
When it comes to keeping pain medications out of the hands of addicts, pharmacies have several methods and restrictions.
Addiction to pain medication is becoming a bigger problem each year.
“We definitely see a lot more pain medication prescriptions now than we did 20 years ago,” says Karen Kight.
Pharmacist and owner of Medicap Pharmacy, Karen Kight sees the problem and, like all pharmacists, has ways to prevent pain meds from getting in the hands of addicts. One tool is the Prescription Drug Monitoring Report.
“Shows the pharmacies where you’ve had prescriptions filled, the doctors who wrote them, and even whether or not they were put on your insurance or you paid cash for them,” says Kight.
Being a small town pharmacy also works in their favor.
“We know our patients, so most of the time we know their diagnosis, why they are on chronic pain medication.”
But they do occasionally get strangers in here which is when they can use the monitoring report, check for ID and ask some more questions.
As another precautionary measure, Karen and her staff don’t normally keep pain medication readily available on the shelves. They only order it for their patients on an as-needed basis.
“We were burglarized a couple years ago.”
Lots of precautions against a problem that may be out of her hands.
“I definitely think it is going to become a bigger problem, prescription drug abuse is definitely on the rise.”
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Filed under: General Problems
100% agree with painkills2! The media is the main enemy here and what I’ve learned is this – most of the reporters are brainwashed. I have begged our main local news channel just to talk to me and they simply ignore me. I’ve sent them statistics that are based on reality, but still they ignore. Guess I need to move on to the smaller local news channels.
How do we get the media to report the truth for a change?
I don’t think the media is interested in the truth — just sensationalism. And the DEA, CDC, FDA, etc. help the media’s addiction to sensationalism by feeding them information and statistics skewed by what the government wants us to know.
Real investigative reporters are hard to find these days. I’ve even written to Huffington Post reporters who write about the drug war and addiction, but was not surprised when I received no response.
When the medical industry and doctors went over to the dark side, pain patients lost what little credibility they had — I’m afraid we’re on our own.
“I definitely think it is going to become a bigger problem, prescription drug abuse is definitely on the rise.”
This is what happens when you believe whatever the media tells you. And when you base your opinions on statistics that are anywhere from one to four years old.
Except the PDMR isn’t used as it should be. If your name isn’t flagged that should be enough to have your rx’s filled without hassle. Unfortunately, pharmacists have gone overboard. Having a clean record in the database isn’t good enough for them. This monitoring database is useless for legit pain patients. What was the point of implimenting it if they aren’t willing to base filling prescriptions on it.
Pool