Reply to s/o Anyone else fed up with doctors thinking everyone is a junkie?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm the PP, and I don't ever take pain medication, EVER.   I'm also a healthcare worker.  You could look at my medication history and see I take ZERO, I mean ZeRO medications.  For whatever reason, i was in terrible pain, and i was positive for both the flu and pneumonia.  Your assumptions are as disrespectful and bad as the ED assumptions.[/quote]

Are you allergic to IV acetaminophen or Toradol?  They are great pain meds and many people who aren't addicted to narcotics feel much better with them.  [/quote]

Not all hospitals carry IV Tylenol on formulary.  No I'm not allergic.  Why are you so intent on proving I'm drug seeking?  I'm a freakin hospital pharmacist, and I know drugs.  But i dont take ANY.  That's why they thought I was seeking.  I don't effin take drugs.  What's wrong with you?[/quote]

So if you  are truly a pharmacist, you understand that many drug seekers are health care workers who know the game. Few have prescriptions, as they can access drugs other ways, includng stealing, until it catches up with them. Very few addicted health care providers have prescriptions, and are more likely to go to ER when withdrawal symptoms come up, as they appear "clean" otherwise. Anyone who tells me that they are. Health care worker, which asking for opiate pain control, is automatically suspect to me. Why? Because I know my job. And you should too. [/quote]

Drug abuse in healthcare workers is about 10% which mirrors the rate in the general population (ISMP - Institute of Safe Medication Practices). Their patterns of abuse can be different.  I am under video surveillance and have several different double checks to control inventory, in addition to random drug checks.  I probably am the most regulated of hospital staff and have the least access to abuse the system compared to doctors, nurses, LNAs, technicians and other personnel.

I still shouldn't have been treated with that level of suspicion just because I work in healthcare.  And it shouldn't subject me to having to receive terrible care because XYZ junkie games the system.

This thread was about being outraged at being treated like a junkie, not to say there aren't tons of junkies out there or people who abuse the system.  I was noting that I had received terrible care as a result of this dynamic, beyond not having my pain controlled, but down the line from the first ED doc making a judgment, to being ignored, to the nursing staff deciding they didn't need to be responsive.  Once I was labeled, it colored the whole coursel of care during my entire admission.  I was outraged because I don't take drugs, and I was in a powerless position, extremely sick and out of town.[/quote]

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