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Doctor calls painkiller abuse in ERs ‘severe’
Published Thursday, June 18, 2009
IRONTON — A prominent area doctor said Tuesday that brazen attempts by prescription drug addicts to secure powerful painkillers under false pretense at area emergency rooms are at a level that can only be described at “severe.”
Dr. Chad Smith, an emergency room physician at St. Mary’s Medical Center, said attempts to secure addictive painkilling narcotics are becoming so commonplace that the issue has escalated to alarming proportions.
“This has turned into a very extensive problem. A very serious problem,” Smith said when explaining the sometimes hourly occurrences the Huntington, W.Va. hospital faces from addicts attempting to falsify their conditions in the attempt to land powerful painkillers.
Smith’s eye-opening revelation follows a June 14 story in The Tribune that detailed how area ambulance services, including Lawrence County-funded Southeast Ohio Emergency Medical Services, is being abused by area prescription drugs addicts to support their addictions.
Abuse is so out of control that a large percentage of emergency calls to Lawrence County 9-1-1 and EMS are made by prescription drug addicts with the sole purpose of getting fast tracked into area emergency rooms for a possible fix while county taxpayers pick up most of the tab.
Smith gave examples of how so-called patients are starting to arrive at the St. Mary’s emergency room already holding five prescriptions written by five different doctors and still asking for more.
“I see those types of things every day,” Smith said. “But we have to treat everybody as a serious case until we are able to make the diagnosis.”
In another case, Smith explained a recent patient who was admitted for dental pain and after being diagnosed, was prescribed the non-narcotic ibuprofen drug Motrin.
Briefly leaving the patient to grab some additional paperwork, Smith returned only to find the patient gone and the prescription he had just written lying on the hospital gurney.
“We find ourselves in a very tough spot since we don’t have a rapport with the patient,” Smith said while explaining what emergency room doctors has been attempting to curb the problem.
According to Smith, one thing doctors have been doing is reviewing records for patients that make frequent visits to St. Mary’s in the attempt to find a pattern of possible abuse.
He added that checking with the boards of pharmacy in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky have made it easier to identify the prescription history of each patient and possible confrontation should the need arise.
Smith also said he “limits” the dosage amounts when he does have to write prescriptions out to emergency room patients.
“Instead of writing a prescription for a large amount, we have started limiting the number of pills.”
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Comments
Posted by mlb (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 12:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Thank God for Jim Sullivan! These are great stories! Finally someone is taking the iniative to address the biggest problem our area faces today. When an addict takes up a bed in the emergency room, it affects all of us! Keep up the good work Jim!
Posted by MasterChef (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 12:26 p.m. (Suggest removal)
OK, I know its wrong, I get it. But isn't trying to bust an individual for prescription a waste of time, money and other resources?
So what if somebody leaves an E.R. with a script for 4-6 pain pills? That's baby-league. Direct more attention to the drug routes from Detroit and Florida. Why not split resources with other counties involved and shut these trade routes down.
Posted by theguydowtown (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 12:33 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Here is the breakdown people:
We pay for these people to survive. Food, shelter, cigarettes, beer, food stamps, FREE MEDICAL CARDS.....all this while our taxes and insurance premiums skyrocket.
The pill heads in turn go to the ER because their local dealer got busted, or worse, had to drive to Columbus to pick up another load.
Here is the best part......you (the taxpayer) gets sick, broken bone, etc., and go to the ER and wait 2 hours to get in because they are so busy dealing with pill head junkies looking for a FREE fix. Must happen alot in the middle of the month when the check runs out.
Now, if someone with the medical card goes to the ER, gets checked out, nothing is wrong with them but they insist on getting "medicine", is there not some way this can fall under some type of FRAUD?????
Why should the taxpayers have to put up with this?
Call me a stereotyper, that is fine. But when people are doing this they dont have money (or they would be buying pills off the street), so if they dont have money they probably dont work. You dont work, you dont have to pay for insurance (in most cases), so we are left paying the bill.
Only in America. I dont know why our economy is struggling.
I say if they get caught doing this, take their financial aid away including health coverage since they want to abuse it.
Thats just my two cents.
Posted by billco (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 1:55 p.m. (Suggest removal)
if they have a med card are trying to get drugs, the people at the er room should take it and report them to what ever agency that essued it. and then prosecute them.
Posted by theguydowtown (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 2:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
billco- then we would have to pay for the court costs, attorney fees, etc.
People who are under the age of 21 that try to buy alcohol are supposed to simply not get their ID back.
I say lets pull their card, kick them off the financial assistance they have grown up knowing and let them fend for themselves in this world.
Posted by pantherpride (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 3:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree with most of what others have written here. This is a no-win situation. If these people abuse the system and get cut off, then the usual route is to resort to a life of crime to get your living expenses, pocket money, and drug money. Then they get arrested, get a taxpayer funded attorney in a taxpayer funded court system, then get locked up in a taxpayer funded prison system, where we feed them, clothe them, and take care of all medical expenses.
We're right back where we started from.
Posted by Tired (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 4 p.m. (Suggest removal)
It's not like this is new news. This crap was going on even when River Valley was open in Ironton. Lots of people get free everything, and I sit with a torn rotator cuff but with no insurance can't get crap done to repair it. I was offered pain meds, but refused them as I saw no point in starting that cycle. There are always going to be addicts, problem is people can't get help that need it but become an addict and they line up to help ya. Squad abuse wouldn't happen as bad if there weren't a 6 hr wait at the ER for the average visit if you drive yourself. That's something that it's the Hospitals job to help fix. And drug seekers can be spotted, they actually used to keep an index card file at River Valley in the ER to check on how many times someone came in for pain meds. Seems like that would be even easier to check with computers now.
Posted by zachary43 (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 4:20 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)
Posted by goybar1 (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 5:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
FIRST OF ALL LET ME SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT-THESE PEOPLE ARE LEACHES THAT FEED OFF THE WORKING STIFFS LIKE YOU AND ME. ANYTIME THERE IS GOVERMENT MONEY TO BE HANDED OUT THEY ARE THE FIRST ONES IN LINE WHILE YOU AND ME SETS BACK AND WATCHES OUR HARD EARNED TAXES GO TO POT.I THINK IF A DOPEHEAD SHOWS UP AT THE ER MORE THAN ONCE A YEAR HE SHOULD BE CASTRADED!!THAT WOULD KEEP THEM OUT OF THE ER BIG TIME!!!
Posted by crackerjack (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 6:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Recently I had an accident and had the misfortune of having to visit the ER. The patient in the bed next to me was trying to get narcotics. She was told she would be given something else and she started screaming that the other area hospitals gave her this, that and whatever else. She had it down pat. She literally screamed and cried for six hours wanting narcotics. Then she said she was going to turn them in because she was being mistreated due to the fact that she had a medical card. Immediately, anyone who was anybody came to this girl and started kissing her rear. After six hours of waiting in a bed, I asked the nurse if they would atleast be kind enough to give me the same attention they were giving her. When the girl was denied the pain medication, she and her husband cursed everyone in the ER, made a huge scene, then the girl fell as she was exiting the ER, only to start the whole scenerio over again. They know how to play the game.
Posted by ann (anonymous) on June 18, 2009 at 7:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I highly agree.. Crackerjack I know someone that sounds like..
Posted by zachary43 (anonymous) on June 19, 2009 at 11:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)
No Neo i am not a family member of Bowman's. However the stunts A. Bollinger has been pulling on Bowman is not right.I feel Bollinger is so power hungry and jealous of Bowman its not funny.Bowman is meek, calm, cool, and collective.Bowman and Bollinger may appear like friends...however I feel nothing is further from the truth.I feel Bollinger would throw Bowman to the dogs if he had the chance.I believe there is a bad-informant that goes by the name Josh~T who has been feeding Bowman so many lies....and when the time comes Bowman will uncover a terr-able truth.You all hold on to the seat of your pant on this one....trust me!!!I feel Bowman will not let Bollinger make him look like a fool on this one.
Posted by MasterChef (anonymous) on June 19, 2009 at 1:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I know this post doesn't belong here, but, where to turn? The article on Wilcox being indicted on 7 counts, with "Comments Disabled" at the same time the story is posted. How can deputies mandate the camera angles a photo journalist uses?
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