First, do no harm |
“You’ve got methadone, oxycodone, and morphine in your urine. I’ve been prescribing the morphine. It’s not safe and it’s against clinic policy. First do no harm.” |
“I’m worried about you. You’ve got methadone in your urine and I’m prescribing oxycodone. You could overdose. I’m worried about your safety.” |
Community harm |
“I’m a provider for a community. I don’t just serve patients. I serve a whole community. Giving someone pain meds that they divert and then sell puts other people in the community at risk. So I want to keep the community safe, not just the patient safe, and then [keep] me safe too.” |
Medicolegal risk |
“We’ve had patients in this practice die, and God knows how many people have died that we don’t know about. That’s on my license, on my prescription, and that’s not okay.” |
“Doctors are under fire for prescribing these medicines and patients that overdose, their families are coming back and suing doctors ‘Why did you prescribe that dangerous medicine to my [family member].’ ” |
Naloxone (Narcan) |
“I did [prescribe Naloxone] for one patient who I knew was a heroin addict … but it hasn’t occurred to me to prescribe to people who have crack problems. It doesn’t occur to me to give them Narcan.” |
“There’s a lot of questions [about naloxone] … who is going to be there to give it to the patient? I guess another argument can be that [it] gives them more of a reason to go full blown on the narcotics, because they know they have an out with naloxone to bounce back.” |