Want another perspective on why some emergency department staff are on a mission to bust drug seekers?
Read this excellent interview that reporter Jim Sullivan does with a prescription drug addict in the Ironton Tribune (Ohio).
The addict discusses how she and friends call ambulances to their homes using false medical complaints in hopes of getting narcotic medications when they arrive at the hospital. If they don’t get what they want, they sign out AMA, go home, call the ambulance back, and request to go to a different hospital. The reporter also researches some numbers and discovers that ambulance runs are two to three times higher than expected in these areas.
Oh, and guess who pays for all of the medical care provided to the “patients.”
I’ll give you a hint … it isn’t the “patients.”
Makes this Tennessee law look better and better, doesn’t it?
I liked the part in the article about how overdoses surpassed car accidents for leading accidental cause of death in the area. That’s crayzee.
I have 2500 people per day read my blog with all the drug-seeker stories and whatnot. I always wonder if anyone was ever helped by it; maybe a doc second-guessed himself giving a narcotic script for “hives” or “1/2 cm cut” or “chronic finger pain” or the 5th visit in 2 months for “back pain” or a nurse questioned the necessity for a narcotic that would have killed the patient or someone to whom he’d sold it.
Probably not though. Based on my experiences, docs only care about complaint letters and satisfaction scores.
Not all of us Nurse K. Yes, I do “care” about those things but I pretty much am unwavering in not giving obvious repeat offending drug seekers any narcs. Patients have been known to call the ER to find out who is working, and if it is me or another doc who rarely indulges the addicts, I am pretty sure they decide not to come in.
[...] that health care has literally become the economy. Add in people who like to game the system (like these folks) and the available funds are disappearing faster and faster. We’re not just talking about [...]
This may be the reason why they have instituted a $500 fee in our county for ambulance rides – I didn’t understand it at first – but if this is what people are actually doing [and it makes me nauseous to think of the abuse] then it makes sense that the $500 is valid.
Not they will ever pay it if they are this shifty and Medicaid/care doesn’t cover it – it is still wrong.
Our County tried to institute the $500 fee, but guess who blocked it?
The EMS services. They set up a cry that people wouldn’t call the ambulances if they thought they’d have to pay. The County “said” the fee would be billed to insurance and most wouldn’t pay. Whether one believes that or not is up for grabs.
Between the firefighters/EMS folks and retirees they blocked the fee.
Makes me think that “gaming the system” has got more than just druggy players.
I agree 100% with this article… I hate people who abuse the system.. Because it ruins it for people like me. I have lived with chronic pain for 7 years now. I was in a car accident, not my fault, on my way to school. I have spent the past 7 years in and out of surgeries, hospitals, and physical therapy. I had a machine that is like a tens unit for my spine put into my body so I could take less pain meds, yet i still get alot of bad days with break through pain that is almost unbearable. When I get these days I fight with my fiance and family to not have to go to the ER. I GET TREATED HORRIBLY by the ER. Like I am a drug seeker. I hate it so much. I actually have been made to suffer 5 hours before the ER down here where I go to school finally got into contact with my pain mang doc ( who is hard to get a hold of) to verify I needed the meds I was telling him. I was in so much pain , If I could have I would have offed myself right then and there, anything was better than the pain i was feeling… my BP went so high my eyes were red and i could do nothing but rock back and forth.. yet the dr’s just sat there. I actually choose to suffer days in bed riving in pain, than go to the ER and get that look, that most ER people give you. I am treated so horribly, and whats funny, is it was an ER Docs Fault I have chronic pain, they missed my neck fracture, which resulted in nerve damage. I am sure they were too busy patting them selves on the back stroking their god complex egos… to notice that I was actually in a ton of pain. but i digress, there have been one or two ER docs who have actually taken me seriously and not put me through the ringer, and to these people I thank, but before all of you get so jaded … please remember there are people out there who have gotten screwed in life, and are in chronic pain, and do have to come in some times 5 times in two months if they cant get their muscles to stop spasming, or they cant keep anything down including their meds, so they have to come in for an IV.. please dont make us suffer because there are people out there who abuse the system. Even with my paper trail, neurostimulator, and letter from my doc…. I still get that look from ER people… I am young, I must be faking it … just because you cant see it on the outside, doesnt mean its not there. and one day you are going to make someone who really is at there whits end, who just needs relief and you are going to give them a hard time, and they just wont be able to take it… i know i have been there.. and if not for the support of my mother… I would not be here still… fighting to just get through each day… trying not to be bitter, that because of a a drunk driver, and a careless ER doctor and staff, I am stuck this way for the rest of my life.