Clear Stream

Clear Stream

Friday, April 13, 2018

JCAHO and the Opioid Crisis

I remember in the 1990's when JCAHO and the NEW hospital administrators--oftentimes nurses fired from clinical duties and this was their new gig to avoid unions penalizing the HR hospital division--scolding physicians for withholding pain meds, patients were groaning in pain, you evil inhumane monsters!

GIVE THE PATIENT NON ADDICTING PERCOCET AND YOU'LL KEEP YOUR JOB!!!

https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/opioids/7-things-to-know-about-the-history-of-the-joint-commission-pain-standards.html

20 years later we're in a big fat mess. Not created by any one player, but I would wager the regulatory push to count pain as the "sixth vital sign" along with rewards for prescribing--the latter no longer exists--now as penance they count the free pens a pharmaceutical co. may give out and post this online in compliance with "the Sunshine act" (because sunshine is the best disinfectant!). Too late, the cat is out of the bag. The addicted patients go to the local Kwik Stop convenience and with some hand and eye gestures a drug dealer can appear and proffers heroin from Mexico, for cheap. I see these transactions when I go to to get gas. The a"authorities" know but what is the use? Arrest, bail, back on the street in 10 days.

No one solution will correct this complicated monster. But it will have to start with enforcement of law. If lowly me can identify the drug pushers when I stop for 5 minutes to get gas for my car, so can "the authorities". Get serious about inspecting every single thing that crosses the border--animal, vegetable or mineral. And yes, stop counting pain as a vital sign. Distractions, breathing, ice, Tylenol...that's what my Mom did when I was a kid and I hurt myself. We're going to have to start saying NO to pills and NO to JCAHO and NO to patients that whine. And also NO to that truck coming from Guerrero, Mexico.