Narcotics Control

This paper will discuss narcotics control. Among the issues to be explored are narcotics abuse by health care professionals, federal guidelines on handling narcotics, penalties for narcotics misuse by health care professionals, and the treatment and rehabilitation of narcotic abusing medical personnel. Abuse of narcotics by doctors, anesthesiologists, nurses and other health care professionals with readily available access to narcotics is an important issue because patient care may be negatively impacted.

Continuous compulsive use of mood altering substances like narcotics and alcohol despite their adverse consequences is considered a primary disease (called chemical dependence). Physicians and other health professionals are considered impaired when the drug dependence or other cause results in inability to provide patients with reasonable skill and safety in

the practice of medicine (Gallegos 191-6).

Cognitive, interpersonal and psychomotor dysfunction from alcohol and drug dependence are pervasive among health care professionals like nurses. In fact, 68% of all state board of nursing actions against nurses result from substance abuse (Solari-Twadell 103-4).

Surveys of anesthesia training programs indicate that three-quarters of the programs have found instances of drug dependence involving the controlled substances used in daily anesthesia practice by anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists. Drug addiction is considered the most dangerous and prevalent occupati

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hen they are regularly administered and patients are charged as part of the treatment or separately. Schedule II controlled substance inventories and records must be kept separate from other records. Schedule III, IV and V controlled substance inventories and records must also be kept separate from other records. When the controlled substance is administered from the same inventory, records of all transactions must be kept (Ibid.). The Drug Enforcement Administration does not require records if the physician makes only occasional administration of controlled substances and does not use the same inventory (though good medical practice dictates keeping these records). Separate registration is needed if narcotics are to be used as part of a treatment program. Records must be kept of controlled substances administered for detoxification or maintenance treatments. Every two years the physician engaged in administration of controlled substances must take an inventory of controlled substances. Starting date for the inventory is the date of starting activities or becoming registered; zero inventories must be recorded (Ibid.). Inventory records that must be kept for the Drug Enforcement Administration include registration number

Category: Medical - N