VA doctors renewed prescriptions without seeing patients

[unhappycamper]

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/dec/02/cir-prescriptions-renewed/?st

VA doctors renewed prescriptions without seeing patients
By The Center for Investigative Reporting
Dec. 2, 2013

Doctors at the San Francisco VA Medical Center regularly renewed prescriptions for highly addictive narcotic painkillers for veterans they had never seen, according to a new report by the Department of Veterans Affairs' inspector general.

The report also documented seven cases of opiate overdose among patients at the facility and determined doctors "did not consistently monitor patients for misuse."

The auditor's review comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of the VA's painkiller prescription practices.

In September, The Center for Investigative Reporting revealed that VA prescriptions for four opiates - hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone and morphine - surged 270 percent between 2001 and 2012. That far outpaced the increase in patients and contributed to a fatal overdose rate among VA patients that the agency's own researchers put at nearly double the national average.

[Trillo]

1. 2001-2012

Seems like those years were characterized by war, and wars in which survival rates from previously fatal wounds reportedly soared due to fantastic medical care and interventions. So, yeah, I'd expect pain killer use to soar.

Is The Center for Investigative Reporting one of the many arms of the drug warriors?

[unhappycamper]

2. Well, after getting vets hooked on opiates

I think the VA should ay least try to get veterans off opiates. Just saying.....