Narcotics and Driving
Here is the latest headline, which should scare you:
‘Drug driving’ leads to more fatal crashes than drunk driving
Why should that scare you? Because if you don’t document that you had told your patient NOT to drive while on pain medication then you could be sued as well. How do I know this? Because I write about this crap every day for 16 years. Doing this Authentic Medicine blog so long allows me to rememberer these kinds of things happening before. And here it is:
Doctors Sued for Prescribing Painkillers to Woman Who Crashed Her Car
You need a WSJ to read the whole thing. It’s an old article (2008) but here are the highlights:
A woman wrecked her car, killing an innocent bystander. Now the bystander’s widow is suing the woman’s doctors, arguing that they should have warned her not to drive while taking the pain medicines they prescribed.
I can’t find the final outcome of this case but the last article I could find showed that it was going through a malpractice review with the state medical society seemed to think was a win. Does it really matter, though? With the opioid craziness going on there has got to be lawyers and others wanting to capitalize on it. In fact, this is from the first article above:
An increasing number of drivers involved in fatal crashes are testing positive for drugs, especially opioids and marijuana, according to a new study by the Governors Highway Safety Association — though it is unclear whether drug use is actually the culprit in those crashes.
The report raises serious concerns at a time when the U.S. is facing an epidemic of opioid usage and as more and more states legalize marijuana for medical and recreational usage. But the GHSA also cautions that it is difficult to fully understand the extent to which “drugged driving” is becoming a problem.
All I can do is repeat what Corporal Hicks said in Aliens, “Hey! I know we’re all in strung out shape but stay frosty and alert. We can’t afford to let one of those bastards in here.”
Exactly
Hire Dr. Farrago as your next keynote speaker
Here is a good one for you. I have a patient just recently admitted to SNF who suffered a tib/fib fracture. Her leg was at 90 degrees and she said she reached down and straightened it out. Sent to the nursing home with 3 day course of narcotic pain medication by the surgeon because we have this idiotic “acute pain” law here in Kentucky.
Another patient that I see in wound care center who has a massive open abdominal wound (its like 6″ x 12″) due to an intestinal perforation. Sent home by surgeon with 3 day supply of narcotic pain medication.
True stories
Yup, crap rolls downhill. (If you haven’t noticed, primary care is the bottom of the medical sh!#p!le) Now we’ll see an epidemic of renal and liver failure, a resurgence of
GI bleeds and more poop on our heads. There is a place for chronic narcotics in those with
chronic pain “NOT REMEDIATED” by injections or surgery. I wished they’d just legalize pot so access would be easier to the cannabidiols and support/research could be easier to support some of the interesting and positive results I’ve seen with chronic pain of whom their pain docs put them on it. Can be very narcotic sparing. I have no problem signing off of folks who are established patients (ie. several years with qualifying conditions) but will not hang out my shingle to do pot evals as there is a negative connotation with that.
https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2018/04/this-doctor-stopped-prescribing-opioids-other-physicians-should-do-the-same.html
And now the s$!t rolls down hill on top of the heads of the primary care physicians because others can’t bear to prescribe opioids!
3 YEARS AGO all the area rheumatologists stopped prescribing the hydrocodone they had scripted for YEARS and all those chronic rheumatologic pain patients were told “go see your PCP”. With this new round of nonsense I anticipate more post op and other pain patient to be told the same thing.