DEA cracking down on narcotic abuse

Posted on April 22, 2010 by Ray Mullman

The Concord Monitor had an article about the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's recent enforcement against the practice of nurses taking doctors' orders orally to order patients' narcotics and anti-psychotics by phone. Pharmacies are required to have written authorization from a doctor before filling prescriptions for narcotics such as Percocet, OxyContin and Vicodin.

The move is aimed at protecting nursing home residents by preventing nursing home staff from diverting or dispensing the powerful painkillers without doctor authorization.  Of course, the nursing home industry does not want to pay doctors so they are whining about the DEA's enforcement.

Few nursing homes have pharmacies on site or doctors on staff.   However, federal regulations and professional standards mandate licensed staff to treat residents' pain immediately.

 See NY Times article on this issue here.

The DEA changed the standard to make it easier for nursing homes to give narcotics to residents by allowing nurses to dispense controlled painkillers to nursing home patients if the patient's doctor electronically transmits a prescription to a pharmacist.   See article from Wisconsin Rapid Tribune.

Tags: , , , ,

Drugs given to residents without a doctor's order?

Posted on September 13, 2009 by Ray Mullman

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel had an article about several nursing homes in Wisconsin providing powerful prescription drugs such as Fentanyl and OxyContin to patients without a doctor's authorization, in violation of federal rules.   Federal rules on dispensing those drugs were not followed, including rules on filing required paperwork, according to an affidavit filed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Milwaukee office.

Drugs in the Wisconsin nursing home kits came from PharMerica, a nationwide pharmaceutical services firm with offices in Pewaukee, according to the affidavit.   Acting on a tip that the law was being broken, DEA agents searched PharMerica's Pewaukee office and six nursing homes across Wisconsin in late July, according to documents.

The nursing homes were:

Beaver Dam Care Center in Beaver Dam; Colony Oaks Care Center in Appleton; Heritage Square in Greendale; Mount Carmel Milwaukee in Greenfield; Village Gardens in Green Bay; and Woodstock Health and Rehab in Kenosha.

PharMerica specializes in providing pharmacy services in institutions such as nursing homes. It is registered with the DEA to distribute controlled substances and is responsible to ensure they are distributed with a prescription, according to the affidavit.   It had net revenue of $1.9 billion and profits of $284.6 million in 2008, according to the company's financial statements.

The infamous Golden Living, a company that runs nursing homes nationally, owns two of the nursing homes inspected by the DEA - Heritage Square and Beaver Dam.  In May, agents in the DEA's Milwaukee office received a call from a tipster saying PharMerica was routinely breaking federal law by improperly delivering powerful schedule II drugs.  DEA agents found paperwork to back up the tipster. On May 13, agents visited PharMerica's Pewaukee office and discovered unsigned prescriptions for schedule II controlled substances on the pharmacy operations manager's desk.

A police report filed by PharMerica showed that a nurse had "dropped" one of the kits, containing OxyContin pills, and lost it. OxyContin is often sold on the street to illicit drug users.

Tags: , , , ,
Poliakoff & Associates, P.A., is one of South Carolina’s most respected and distinguished law firms. The Poliakoff firm began nearly 60 years ago by three attorney brothers: Matthew, J. Manning, and Bernard. With a history of believing the justice system...More...