The More Things Change…
It is up to us (OMS) to be good stewards of responsible opiate prescribing to one of our more common and most susceptible patient demographics.
The More Things Change… Read More »
Opiate Epidemic Disproportionately Worsening in High School Age Demographic
A pre-print citation in medRxiv is demonstrating a near 100% increase in opiate related deaths in the high school age demographic (ages 14-18) from 2019 to 2020 alone. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl once again appears to be the usual suspect. This study calculated drug overdose deaths by 5 year age groups over the 11 year period from 2010
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Epic Carelink
In my brief tenure as an academic oral & maxillofacial surgeon and through advanced graduate studies in clinical informatics at Oregon Health & Sciences University, I gained a real working knowledge of the benefits of the EPIC electronic health record (EHR). EHR implementation gained heavy momentum during the Obama presidency as the result of the HITECH
US Opioid Fatalities Reach Grim Milestone…
Recent CDC reports over 100,000 opiate related deaths (all sources) from April 2020 to April 2021, up 29% from the same prior period; North Carolina saw a 36.9% with Florida falling below the national average with a 26.2% increase in opiate related deaths. Most opiate related deaths are attributed to illicit opiate abuse and have been on
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NC Practitioner Compliance With CSRS
The home/welcome page of the NC Board of Dental Examiners has an interesting post copied from the NC Medical Board’s website. Not too unexpectedly, CSRS is flagging registrants who have been prescribing controlled substances but not reviewing a patient’s CSRS profile. In this post it states: Administrators of the state-run North Carolina Controlled Substances Reporting
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AMA Reports Decreased Opiate Prescribing…Increased Deaths
Consistent with other reports we have made the American Medical Association has released a report showing a 44% decrease in opiate prescribing over the past 10 years with a 6.9% decrease from 2019-2020 alone. However, at the same time, “deaths of despair” continue to rise as a worsening drug overdose and death epidemic from illicit opiates laced with fentanyl continues to
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Arthrotec
Any of you who have ever taken of our safe opiate prescribing compliance courses know that I’m a huge fan of combination drugs – like Advil Dual Action. The reason is compliance – one of the worst practices is to give a patient 5 or 6 prescriptions after a procedure – the likelihood a patient will
Update: National Drug Overdosage Deaths Up 29.4%
The CDC reports that drug overdose death rates (from all causes) are up 29.4% over the last 12 months most likely reflecting so-called “deaths of despair” as the SARS-COV2 pandemic continues unabated. This probably represents death from illicit drug abuse often times laced with fentanyl – a cheap but super-potent synthetic opioid frequently mixed with heroin
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NC CSRS Gateway Integration De-mystified
In 2009 the Obama Administration championed the development of the HITECH Act. Among its many ramifications were the development of “meaningful use” parameters intended to provide financial incentives through health care insurance reimbursement (Medicare, Medicaid) for health care entities to adopt technological advances to make health care more accessible and affordable. The HITECH Act accomplished this through
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It Was The Crime Of The Century
HBO has released a documentary of evolution of the opiate crisis in a 2 part series “The Crime Of The Century”. Consider it essential material for any health care provider who prescribes opioids…
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