If fentanyl is so dangerous, why is it used in hospitals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctor here.

Fentanyl on the street kills people bc it makes you unconscious and suppresses your breathing.

When we use fentanyl in the hospital, it is in the context of intubation and a ventilator. A you don’t die. You remain unconscious while the ICU or surgical team does things you couldn’t tolerate while awake even with painkillers, such as positive pressure ventilation and operating on you.

Please be honest. Does the hospital profit more from using opiates compared to non-opiods on patients? This push to take fentanyl, even when not necessary, has to be money driven.

+1. This may be a topic for another thread, but I am seeing evidence that a lot of colonoscopies are prescribed because they are so profitable for the hospital, not because they are really necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctor here.

Fentanyl on the street kills people bc it makes you unconscious and suppresses your breathing.

When we use fentanyl in the hospital, it is in the context of intubation and a ventilator. A you don’t die. You remain unconscious while the ICU or surgical team does things you couldn’t tolerate while awake even with painkillers, such as positive pressure ventilation and operating on you.

Please be honest. Does the hospital profit more from using opiates compared to non-opiods on patients? This push to take fentanyl, even when not necessary, has to be money driven.

+1. This may be a topic for another thread, but I am seeing evidence that a lot of colonoscopies are prescribed because they are so profitable for the hospital, not because they are really necessary.

Where are you "seeing" this? 1 procedure every 10 years after age 45 is the standard so far as know, and that's hardly frequent.

[Anonymous]

I was on fentanyl patches before and after back surgery before fentanyl became an epidemic. I am happy to report that I’m not an addict, not on pain medication now and back to work. This was 2013 and it was a hellish 2 years in total to recover. Not everyone who has been on fentanyl ends up in rehab.
Epidurals are fentanyl based 99% of the time. Post surgical medication is often fentanyl. It’s an amazing, safe and well tested drug in hospital settings.
Two things can be true at one time: it can be an unsafe street drug and a safely administered one for medical purposes.
It was hard to wean from it, but the benefit far outweighed the very slow weaning process for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctor here.

Fentanyl on the street kills people bc it makes you unconscious and suppresses your breathing.

When we use fentanyl in the hospital, it is in the context of intubation and a ventilator. A you don’t die. You remain unconscious while the ICU or surgical team does things you couldn’t tolerate while awake even with painkillers, such as positive pressure ventilation and operating on you.

Please be honest. Does the hospital profit more from using opiates compared to non-opiods on patients? This push to take fentanyl, even when not necessary, has to be money driven.

+1. This may be a topic for another thread, but I am seeing evidence that a lot of colonoscopies are prescribed because they are so profitable for the hospital, not because they are really necessary.

Where are you "seeing" this? 1 procedure every 10 years after age 45 is the standard so far as know, and that's hardly frequent.

https://lowninstitute.org/as-many-as-25-of-screening-colonoscopies-are-unnecessary-study-finds/#:~:text=They%20examined%20six%20studies%20which,evaluate%20and%20stop%20potential%20overuse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctor here.

Fentanyl on the street kills people bc it makes you unconscious and suppresses your breathing.

When we use fentanyl in the hospital, it is in the context of intubation and a ventilator. A you don’t die. You remain unconscious while the ICU or surgical team does things you couldn’t tolerate while awake even with painkillers, such as positive pressure ventilation and operating on you.

Please be honest. Does the hospital profit more from using opiates compared to non-opiods on patients? This push to take fentanyl, even when not necessary, has to be money driven.

+1. This may be a topic for another thread, but I am seeing evidence that a lot of colonoscopies are prescribed because they are so profitable for the hospital, not because they are really necessary.

Where are you "seeing" this? 1 procedure every 10 years after age 45 is the standard so far as know, and that's hardly frequent.

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/facility-fees-charged-by-hospitals-for-colonoscopy-procedures-are-about-55-percent-higher-than-those-charged-by-surgical-centers#:~:text=Colonoscopies%20are%20widely%20used%20for,under%20Medicaid%20and%20Medicare%20insurance.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctor here.

Fentanyl on the street kills people bc it makes you unconscious and suppresses your breathing.

When we use fentanyl in the hospital, it is in the context of intubation and a ventilator. A you don’t die. You remain unconscious while the ICU or surgical team does things you couldn’t tolerate while awake even with painkillers, such as positive pressure ventilation and operating on you.

Please be honest. Does the hospital profit more from using opiates compared to non-opiods on patients? This push to take fentanyl, even when not necessary, has to be money driven.

+1. This may be a topic for another thread, but I am seeing evidence that a lot of colonoscopies are prescribed because they are so profitable for the hospital, not because they are really necessary.

Where are you "seeing" this? 1 procedure every 10 years after age 45 is the standard so far as know, and that's hardly frequent.

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2023/facility-fees-charged-by-hospitals-for-colonoscopy-procedures-are-about-55-percent-higher-than-those-charged-by-surgical-centers#:~:text=Colonoscopies%20are%20widely%20used%20for,under%20Medicaid%20and%20Medicare%20insurance.)

Good grief, neither of these links support what you said.

The link above says that colonoscopies performed in hospitals are more expensive than colonoscopies performed in dedicated walk-in clinics. The paper acknowledges this is because hospitals have higher overhead. More expensive does not mean more profitable. And this paper does not say hospitals are prescribing the colonoscopies they perform.

The other link (Lowen) is a summary of summaries so it's hard to get details, but when they say overuse they appear to mean people 75+ getting colonoscopies. They consider this overuse because it's lower utility (you'll probably die of something else) and higher risk (old people are fragile).

If you are worried about profit motive, it's helpful to follow the money. Most people get a colonoscopy rx from their GP based on age and risk factors, and then the patient has to go find a facility to perform the colonoscopy that's covered by their insurance. The prescribing doctor is not typically linked to the performing facility so it's difficult to see how they profit in the normal course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Doctor here.

Fentanyl on the street kills people bc it makes you unconscious and suppresses your breathing.

When we use fentanyl in the hospital, it is in the context of intubation and a ventilator. A you don’t die. You remain unconscious while the ICU or surgical team does things you couldn’t tolerate while awake even with painkillers, such as positive pressure ventilation and operating on you.

Please be honest. Does the hospital profit more from using opiates compared to non-opiods on patients? This push to take fentanyl, even when not necessary, has to be money driven.

+1. This may be a topic for another thread, but I am seeing evidence that a lot of colonoscopies are prescribed because they are so profitable for the hospital, not because they are really necessary.

Where are you "seeing" this? 1 procedure every 10 years after age 45 is the standard so far as know, and that's hardly frequent.

You seriously don’t know which life choices aren’t a good thing for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was about to have a minor medical procedure and discovered that they were going to use Fentanyl to "put me under." By coincidence, the newspaper that morning had a front page article (above the fold) about overdoses in the DMV. When I raised this issue with the anesthesiologist, I got a nasty earful about how I was not to question the doctor's expertise. Thanks, Doc.

You should reconsider your response. While the anesthesiologist could have been more patient, it’s pretty obvious that a trained professional using a controlled medication in the manner it was designed is substantially different from a random person buying it from a drug dealing using it at home and overdosing and dying. These are not remotely comparable.

This. It's always ok to ask questions about your treatment, and the doctor should not have been rude. But if you really thought the doctor would allow you to overdose on the operating table, why were you even there? At some point you have to let people do the jobs they are trained to do.

[Anonymous]

A poster reported the hospital overdosed their relative, and then had to use Narcan to save his life. Scary stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A poster reported the hospital overdosed their relative, and then had to use Narcan to save his life. Scary stuff.

Are you talking about this thread?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1105173.page

The first few posts explain why getting Narcan does not mean the pt was overdosed or ever in danger.

[Anonymous]

My mother was on fentanyl patches in late stage terminal cancer. She was not addicted, it was absolutely treating the pain but it did make her weirder.

When I had a 10 hour brain surgery I asked for non-opiods as soon as I could get them. They had me on oxy and we swapped to tylenol (ibuprophen was out as it could cause bleeds).

[Anonymous]

Fentanyl is killing 100,000 Americans a year.
Think about that. Many people get addicted to their prescribed fentanyl. This is outrageous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fentanyl is killing 100,000 Americans a year.
Think about that. Many people get addicted to their prescribed fentanyl. This is outrageous.

Yes, all those people self-titrating their home spinal analgesias. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are so many other meds that can relieve pain and aren’t as dangerous.

True. You have to wonder why they’re doing this, given the horrific consequences of fentanyl addiction.

100,000 dead Americans every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are so many other meds that can relieve pain and aren’t as dangerous.

True. You have to wonder why they’re doing this, given the horrific consequences of fentanyl addiction.

100,000 dead Americans every year.

If only they weren't doing routine at-home spinal injections.