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Three Day Limit for Most Narcotic Prescriptions for Acute Pain
LAKELAND – While Florida's new opioid prescription law came into effect on Sunday, patients wanting to relieve pain can notice changes in their prescriptions. they are given and perhaps even to the doctor who will treat them.
The most publicized part of the law is the limitation of opioid prescriptions to three days, seven days if a doctor documents that it is medically necessary, for people the pain of surgery, a traumatic injury or acute illness. Patients suffering from such acute pain will need to be rebadessed by a doctor to get a refill at the end of a three-day or seven-day prescription.
Patients with long-term chronic debilitating pain, including those with cancer pain and those requiring palliative and end-of-life care, are not limited to three-day or seven-day prescriptions.
Acknowledging that a drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, the Florida Legislature enacted complicated law in an effort to reduce opioid drug dependence. The intention is to encourage doctors to prescribe the lowest doses that will relieve severe pain or use other drugs and therapies.
Emergency room physicians and surgeons are already working to reduce the use of opioids, said Dr. Timothy Regan, Emergency Physician and Chief Medical Officer of Health for Lakeland Regional Health
. A past trend encouraging doctors to try to eliminate the pain has led to excessive prescribing, which has fueled the epidemic of opioids.
The federal government has changed the wording that hospitals must use when patients are asked about their hospital stay, Regan said. The question was how they controlled your pain; "This allows prescribers to approach pain control in a more conservative manner" rather than encouraging excessive prescribing, Regan said. Opioids, such as back pain or knee pain, should still be able to take their medications, but they may have differences under the new law.
"We educated our patients in advance" Ellington, who is in charge of risk management at the Watson Clinic of 200 doctors in Lakeland. He added that posters explaining the law had been posted in the various institutions of the clinic and that the clinic's website contained an article explaining the law.
The law requires doctors to prescribe opioids for chronic pain. Ellington said: [TRADUCTION] "Do not some doctors prescribe opioids at all? Certainly, "said Ellington, although, he adds, most physicians probably adapt their practices and continue to prescribe drugs
to prescribe opioids, doctors, osteopaths, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists, nurse practitioners, doctors and others the substances must:
• Register with the Federal Drug Agency
• take a two or three prescription course hours
• Medical Licensing to Treat Chronic Pain
• Document the patient's pain and make a written plan to treat the pain.
• Check the database. status to see if there are any other narcotic / opioid prescriptions for the patient.
• Check the patient's picture against the medical records.
• And enter the prescription into the database of state before the end of the next business day.
"Many people may feel uncomfortable doing so," Ellington said. Some might decide to no longer prescribe opioids, even to long-term patients with chronic pain. They could refer them to a pain management clinic for treatment.
Regan said that pain management specialists will likely see a spike in activity because of referrals. However, pain management specialists are trained not only on narcotic drugs, but also on other medications and alternative therapies, which could be in the patient's best interest, Regan said. Francisco Chebley, medical director of the large regional group of doctors in Lakeland, said that if a doctor has been comfortable writing prescriptions, the new law should not be a major hurdle.
"It's a bit of a step further" check the database, "but should not cause deterrence." Said Chebley. "It only takes a few seconds to connect" to the database
"A doctor should know if a patient has been shopping at the doctor's office" for the purpose of obtaining additional narcotics, Chebley says. said that Lakeland Regional is working to integrate access to the database with its electronic records system, which allows doctors to check if a patient has other opioid prescriptions.
Patients should know that their doctor will ask them more questions. not because their doctor does not trust them, Regan says. "Physicians are responsible for prescribing responsibly, and patients should be aware of this."
The law also addresses what pharmacies must do to verify the legitimacy of prescriptions and to ensure that 39. A patient is not sold multiple narcotics.
"There is nothing in this law that means that legitimate patients can not obtain legitimate drugs for legitimate reasons," Ellington said.
Marilyn Meyer can be contacted at [email protected] or 863-802-7558. Follow her on Twitter @marilyn_ledger.
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