If a newly graduated medical student during his or her
residency can write prescriptions for drugs that are universally known to be habit
forming (opioids), then shouldn’t they have access to any programs that would
help to lessen potential addiction issues?
Shouldn’t they care enough to take as much time as needed to ensure that
they are not enabling and or creating opioid addiction?
According to Felice
J. Freyer of the Boston Globe, “Medical residents don’t have access [to the
Prescription Monitoring Program, a state-run database of every prescription for
controlled substances] — even though they’re allowed to prescribe controlled
substances”. This is a problem that has been
going on for some time now, because most doctors, let alone new doctors
completing their residencies, don’t have the time, nor do they care to make
sure that their patients aren’t abusing the drugs that they are being prescribed.
Even Dr. Sara Schlotterbeck, the first year medical resident
that prompted the Globe’s article, confirms that there is truly a lack of time
and care when dealing with opioid prescriptions and patients. She refers to what is needed to gain access
to the Prescription Monitoring Program as a resident doctor when she says, “If
we really try hard, if we take that extra 15 or 20 minutes — which is actually
a lot of time . . .”, but her statement is clearly acknowledging that she and her colleagues,
fellow doctors and resident doctors alike, are not trying hard enough, are not
taking enough time, and even feel as if 15 or 20 minutes is too much time to
help a patient. Dr. Schlotterbeck makes it more than apparent that she, the state of MA, and other doctors are not doing enough to prevent patients from becoming addicted to opioids.
Can you believe that “15 to 20 minutes is actually lot of
time” when it comes to helping patients; human beings? I don’t know about the whole of the patient
world, but I’m normally in the waiting room to see any doctor, for any reason,
for longer than 15 to 20 minutes. I
think it’s safe to say that 15 to 20 minutes should not be considered a lot of
time when it comes to helping any patient/human being, and especially when it comes to
preventing opioid addiction.
If newly graduated medical students, during their residencies, are legally allowed to prescribe opioids, then they should also be allowed to access the database that could give them the ability to prevent opioid addiction. I say give these new doctors access to the Prescription Monitoring
Program, or take away their ability to prescribe opioids until they gain access
to it.
It's frightening to think how easy it is for opioid abuse to be facilitated by medical professionals unwilling or unable to double-check the validity of their own patients prescriptions. It makes me wonder what other operations are not being performed efficiently. Such as surgeries for example. The risk of human error is rather high it would seem.
ReplyDelete"I don’t know about the whole of the patient world"
ReplyDeleteClearly.
I suggest you interview some medical residents, and find out for yourself how hellish their life is, and why 15-20 minutes *is* a great deal of time out of their day.
I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear how "hellish" it truly is to be in the medical field, or more specifically to be a medical resident, but when it comes to the health, and overall life of a human being, medical residency suffrage cannot possibly compare. A human life can be lost in a matter of seconds, and can never be brought back again once it's gone, so if it takes an extra 15-20 minutes to keep someone alive and well, then by all means please do your best to make it happen. Of course you are entitled to your opinion, as I am to my own
ReplyDeleteMy opinion is based on conversations with actual medical residents. Yours is not. Did you know that arguing with an uninformed opinion is considered a logical fallacy (Argument by laziness)?
DeleteWho are you talking to when you say, "by all means please do your best to make it happen"? Me, or the medical resident? I have no ability to make any such thing happen. And your presumption that a medical resident is not already doing their best is... problematical.