University of Vermont Medical Center doctors have dramatically reduced the amount of opiates they prescribe, the hospital announced Thursday.
In the third quarter of 2018, physicians issued 44 percent fewer prescriptions for more than 50 pills than they did in the same quarter in 2017. Since 2016, the medical center has registered a 71 percent decline in those prescriptions, the hospital said.
State health officials and law enforcement leaders have urged the medical community to curb prescribed opiates as Vermonters struggle with abuse of the drugs, and fatal overdoses have reached record highs.
The hospital has instituted voluntary guidelines for maximum daily doses, tracks physicians’ prescribing rates and shares information about those rates with physicians.
“Doctors are having real conversations with their patients about treatment for their pain, and talking about possible alternatives to opiates,” said Stephen Leffler, chief population health and quality officer for the University of Vermont Health Network.
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Missing from this article are the actual guidelines, maximum daily doses, etc. that are mention in the article – or even a link. I would love to see how the management of pain is being addressed and how it is coordinated with lower doses of opiates, since the unrivaled power of opiates is in their pain management properties. What is being done instead? What is being used and are there concerns about abuse or addiction with those medications as well?
Yes, most of the problem is from the black market dealers that sell illegal fentanyl because the doctors have been threatened by the DEA they will lose their license if they write prescriptions for pain medication. What about the people who suffer from chronic pain daily and need pain meds for chronic pain? They are being unfairly treated and looked at like addicts which we are not. I have peripheral neuropathy in my feet, rheumatoid arthritis and degenerative disc disease but all the doctors will give me is gabapentin which does nothing for the chronic nerve pain damage. The doctors are being told to give out antidepressants which don’t work for the chronic pain. A lot of people are committing suicide due to them not being treated right.
Mr. Grape adds a very important dimension to this. Chronic pain management from afflictions like RA can only be managed so far with Ibuprofen or gabapentin. The crippling afflictions he mentions are not trivial and it is completely unclear why there seems to be a tendency to couple chronic or acute pain management methods with either the concerns of criminal conduct or to imagined moral failings. If doctors are susceptible to black market temptations, supplies susceptible to theft, pharmaceutical companies susceptible to the lucrative promotion of addictive product and the federal government tolerant of such abuses in the name of “small government” it is unclear why there should be a burden placed on patients such as Mr. Grape to suffer the experience of chronic pain in this age of modern medicine.
“UVM Medical Center curbs opiate prescriptions”, what took so long?
UVM is not the ONLY hospital in this state.
What about the other 13 Hospitals including your VA Hospitals, Critical Access facilities and Non Profit facilities?
Gi Grape , I have to ask , are opiates and synthetic opiates sustainable for long term chronic pain ? I’m not suggesting any moral failings but can patients use these drugs safely for extended periods ? My MIL had to be weaned off oxycodone after horrific results . Her constant pain problems were compounded with addiction and cardio issues . Her pain is still an issue but the holistic pain management approach she is now on seems more sustainable long term . Oxycodone was going to kill her .
As a side note I recently had minor foot surgery . On the way out I was given a prescription for oxycodone by the secretary . My son was given the same after wisdom teeth removal also by the secretary . After hearing the horror stories, we said no thanks .
Rich
Some people who have been taking them for a long time could be weaned down from them depending on the illness. But if they are taken off from them, it shouldn’t be all at once like a lot of doctors are doing. Patients with chronic pain can take certain opioids if they are monitored weekly or however they are done. If a person selects a synthetic one then that would be better I think but am not sure. There are so many new drugs that could be used and not as addicting.
The last time I had an operation they gave me oxycodone also to bring home but only took one