Monday, November 21, 2011

Of Chance and Drugs

This is my 100th post! And I worked a double shift- out of the last 32 hours, I worked 24 of them...  It doesn't feel so bad, but looking at it that way makes it look that much worse! Luckily, most of these past 16 hours in a row were  not on my feet, as I was in Urgent Care and had a lot of paperwork to do.

And little did I know, I missed the memo that declared today the unofficial Drug-Seeker Day!
It's the holiday where opiate addicts of all ages, shapes, sizes, and intelligence levels come to the ER to feed their gambling vice.  Will they score? Will they score big? And on our tab? (That would be the jackpot) Or will they get escorted out by security and blacklisted? Take a roll of the dice- somewhere along the way, many have apparently found reward in this terrible game.

Naturally, this game of opiate-collecting is equally one of chance and skill.  As far as chance goes, they might meet one of our new providers that doesn't know them by name/face/habit.  Perhaps they might come when we are tired/distracted/discontented and hope we might not notice how regularly they visit every 30 days to get that magical prescription. Maybe they might have a legitimate (self-inflicted) injury.  Or perhaps they might be skilled players and alternate between different pharmacies and providers every few days. Maybe they developed incredible powers to break down the will of providers or just the gift of gab and persuasive power.

In any event, I was working with a well-seasoned veteran APRN who knows the numbers to local pharmacies, certain pharmacies outside state borders, the websites to trace narcotic prescriptions for certain individuals, and  has an exceptional sensitivity for people.  His sarcastic pen broke many dreams and wrote many prescriptions for motrin and tylenol today. Becoming rather seasoned myself, I made sure security was already awaiting our problem clients on their escorted walk back outside.

There were quite a few seekers from out of state that were found on our databases to have been flagged in multiple states. They were very surprised to be found out so quickly, but I am sure they will find other places and other ways to gain these prescriptions lawfully.  Or they will come back tomorrow for another roll at the dice in urgent care.

S

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