Prescription Opioid Crisis

Prescription Opioid Crisis

I have just started using SafeScript. This is the Victorian Department of Health’s response to the current prescription opioid crisis.

I think it is fabulous. Even though it is not yet mandatory in my area, I am nonetheless able to access the service online. It has thrown up some interesting challenges.

For instance I have a female patient with a relatively new diagnosis of seronegative arthritis. She is embarking upon her journey into biological therapies. She also loves her endone. I have been a bit uneasy in dishing it out, but I have rationalised that she has a proven arthritis syndrome, she is already under the care of pain specialists who have recommended clonidine which she takes. So what the harm?

That is until now. I have just seen her SafeScript record. We have all been doing it, my other colleagues and I. We have all been feeling sorry for her and we have all been giving her endone scripts. It has mounted up.

Thanks to SafeScript I can now see that she is getting the equivalent of 50 mg daily of endone. The information was there all along had I chosen to look carefully at it, however now with SafeScript it has been presented to me in an easily digestible format with red alarms all over it. I now have to do something about it.

I have a difficult conversation ahead of me, but at least I now know the facts.