Tuesday, March 27, 20077
The sad plight of William Hurwitz
In the DEA's fight against chronic pain treatment, patients are often the losers:
“Doctors are trained to treat patients, not to be detectives,” says Dr. James N. Campbell, a Johns Hopkins University neurosurgeon specializing in pain, who will be another witness for Dr. Hurwitz. He says that doctors have already reacted to the D.E.A. crackdown by changing the way they deal with the many Americans — at least 50 million, by several estimates — who suffer from chronic pain.
“Opioids were a revolution in pain treatment during the 1990s, but doctors are now more reluctant to use them,” Dr. Campbell says. “If a doctor perceives there’s a 1 in 5,000 chance that a prescription will lead to a D.E.A. inquiry — just an inquiry, not even an arrest — he’s not going to take the chance. So the victims are the patients.”
Comments
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Denise
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
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Anonymous
Dr Hurwitz is a physician who has had multiple reputable pain physicians review his charts trying to defend him. They almost all end up finding his practice indefensable. This began with the Va State Board and has continued into Federal Court. After his last trial a panel session at the Amer Board of Pain Medicine meeting included one of his trial experts. He stated that he couldn't actually support Hurwitz's practice. He was only defending him because he was afraid of the slippery slope. Dr Hurwitz has stated that his goal is to have the drug laws in the country revoked by the courts. He is using reputable pain MDs to support his poor practice style. Of course that is what defense lawyers are supposed to do.
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Anonymous
Poor practice style is not, except in dictatorial tyrannies, grounds for imprisonment. It is grounds for being made to find another means of financial sustenance.
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Anonymous
Has anyone considered the CRUSADING PHARMACISTS who truly believe they are extension agents of the DEA?
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Bill
Who would you rather have write your prescriptions? Your doctor or the police?
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eric
The moron physician who wrote about pharmacists "ratting out" doctors to the DEA is absolutely wrong.
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Anonymous
Bottom line - Hurwitz broke no law. Yet he was locked up for years. No one . . NO ONE . . knows what he is in Jail for !! The Prosecutors found no "collusion" with the Patients who sold their pills. The only reason I have ever seen was a bizarre charge of "Practicing improper medicine". What in the world is that? There is no law that defines "proper medicine". A man is in prison who was not found guilty of breaking any law.
Post a Comment10:47 AM
MD JD
2:27 PM
5:22 PM
These pharmacists were not even in the examination room with the patient[s], yet they make conclusions and judgements about doctors' prescriptions of controlled substances, and actually rat out on their community physicians to the DEA!
You haven't known one pharmacist like this? I've worked with a few...and they dispense the prescriptions anyway as it impacts their customer service bottomline [not too much profit on narcotics, esp. generics] But they rat out the doctors and play hero to the DEA. Certainly not a hero to the legitimate chronic pain patient...
12:44 PM
5:04 PM
Most doctors who over prescribe narcotics do so because it is a fast and lucrative way to build their practices. Drug addicts and traffickers make excellent "patients" who return every month and never miss appointments.
As for the comment that generic narcotic drugs are not much profit, please take a business class, you buy a generic bottle of vicodin 5 mg for $22.00/500 count and sell 40
tablets for $30.00. Generic drugs are where the profits lay. Whether you are selling car tires, toilet paper or drugs the same concept applies: the cheaper the product the higher your profit margin.
Please idiot physicians take a business course and get your facts right.
The Angry Pharmacist
12:44 AM
7:59 AM