David Myles, MD, a pediatrician with the Carroll Hospital Center in Westminster, Md., shared his experience treating an 18-year-old opioid overdose patient for an op-ed in The Baltimore Sun.
Dr. Myles described witnessing a nurse administer the opioid overdose antidote naloxone to the overdosed patient in the hospital parking lot. When the patient awoke from his opioid-induced coma in the emergency department, he immediately ran out of the facility. While Dr. Myles said he can't be completely sure why the patient fled, he suspected it was because the patient did not have insurance.
"This unfortunate situation is a common occurrence where I work in rural Maryland, and it is a shameful reminder of the inadequacy of current efforts to reform our country's system of healthcare," wrote Dr. Myles.
Dr. Myles also argued clinicians and hospitals are, in part, responsible for facilitating America's opioid overdose crisis.
"Even as a pediatrician, I share some of the blame for the drug abuse epidemic that is now the leading cause of death for people under 50 years old. A significant percentage of those who are now addicted to opioids obtained their first dose from a physician," wrote Dr. Myles. "I and my physician colleagues should do a better job of managing expectations of the level of pain that a patient may have given their specific medical condition. We can also give patients and families a variety of options. This could include initially prescribing non-narcotic pain medications and, if pain is still not optimally managed, then consider prescribing a narcotic."
To read the complete article in The Baltimore Sun, click here.