A couple of months ago, a patient well known to the emergency room where I work came in requesting his usual cocktail of narcotic pain medications. It was early Saturday morning, before the usual bustle of patients had begun, and I had some time.
The patient was well documented in the electronic medical record for his frequent emergency room visits for painkillers. To further confirm, I called his pharmacy, and as soon as the pharmacist heard the patient’s name, he sighed loudly, said he knew him well, and began listing the litany of different doctors and hospitals from which the patient had gotten narcotic painkillers.
I then sat down with the patient for a good 25 minutes — a considerably long time in a busy, urban emergency room — and explained why I could not give him what he wanted. It was clearly stated in his medical record that he had an extensive history of opioid abuse, and the shopping-around for prescriptions, as suggested by his pharmacy, further validated that. I knew if I waved him off with another supply of painkillers, I would only perpetuate his addiction problem.
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