My test came back negative.
"MGH to screen all patients for substance abuse; Querying part of effort to treat addiction" by Liz Kowalczyk | Globe Staff June 30, 2014
Massachusetts General Hospital will take the unusual step of questioning all patients about their use of alcohol and illegal drugs beginning this fall, whether they are checking in for knee surgery or visiting the emergency department with the flu.
How often have you had six or more drinks on one occasion, caregivers will ask, or used an illegal drug in the past year? If the battery of four questions reveals a possible addiction, doctors can summon a special team to conduct a “bedside intervention” and, if needed, arrange treatment.
The mandatory screening program is part of a broad plan to improve addiction treatment at the Boston teaching hospital and its community health centers and is an example of an expanding national and statewide effort to reach substance abusers earlier and in mainstream medical settings.
Nearly one-quarter of patients in the hospital for routine medical problems have active substance abuse disorders, according to national data — and that was before the recent epidemic of opioid abuse and overdoses in Massachusetts and other states.
This about asserting even more control over people and grabbing even more information for their government file.
Dr. Sarah Wakeman, medical director for substance use disorders at Mass. General’s Center for Community Health Improvement, called being in the hospital “a reachable moment,’’ when social workers and psychiatrists can bring initial treatment right to a patient’s bedside.
“We make it incredibly hard for people to access care for addiction,’’ she said. “Part of our goal is shifting the culture.’’
That kind of talk in an agenda-pushing paper is frightening and enough to keep one out of the hospital.
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As the Affordable Care Act pushes hospitals and physicians to better coordinate care and lower costs, they are realizing that tackling substance abuse in traditional medical settings can further both these goals.
Somehow I knew Obummercare was connected to all this. It is data collection through doctors.
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Screening programs are intended to reach patients before their illness gets this serious.
Despite the toll substance abuse takes on individuals and families, only about 10 percent of addicts are in treatment in any given year, in part because they are ashamed, said Dr. Joji Suzuki, director of addiction psychiatry at the Brigham.
They should be.
“Lots of patients would seek treatment if it was in more traditional settings,’’ he said. For that to happen, he added, nurses and doctors must be trained how to question patients without sounding judgmental.
“Experts alone cannot handle this,’’ he said. “We need our regular medical colleagues to become comfortable with this. We need the entire health system to start taking responsibility.’’
As part of a 10-year strategic plan, Mass. General plans to spend at least $1.4 million a year on a new addiction screening and treatment program. It was prompted in part by a 2012 study of health needs in Chelsea, Charlestown, and Revere, which identified substance abuse as the number one concern....
Nurses will ask patients who are admitted to the emergency department and inpatient units questions recommended by the National Institutes of Health to gauge overuse of alcohol and use of illegal drugs or prescription medication for nonmedical reasons.
Once again, the real problems of where it is coming from, who is bringing it here, and who is laundering the money go unaddressed.
For certain patients who score high, a member of a new hospital addiction team will come to their hospital rooms and encourage them to talk about their drinking and drug-taking habits and how their lives are affected.
Dr. Timothy Wilens, director of addiction medicine at Mass. General, said a patient with high blood pressure who reports drinking four bourbons a night, for example, may not think his or her alcohol use is an issue. “I would say, ‘Let me tell you that when you drink at that level, it starts to affect you liver and cardiovascular health,’ ” Wilens said. “‘Let’s see if you can cut back to two drinks.’ You try to motivate the person.’’
Mass. General will hire five “recovery coaches” — former substance abusers who are certified by the state — to work at the hospital and in the three community health centers. Coaches will accompany people needing longer-term care to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and encourage them to stick to treatment plans.
$tate sponsors!
The hospital also plans to phase in screening for outpatients and establish an addiction discharge clinic to provide temporary treatment for patients who do not have immediate access to a primary care provider or therapist.
Wilens said that most hospitals believe screening patients is a good idea. “The problem is if you ask someone and find out there’s a problem, what are you going to do? Some of the hospitals have inadequate resources. That puts them in a bind.’’
Boston Medical Center, a pioneer in drug and alcohol screening and treatment, recently found itself in this position. The hospital, which serves many of Boston’s poorest residents, got a five-year $10 million federal grant in 2006 for drug and alcohol screening of all patients....
To be honest with you, I'm tired of this f***ing government wasting money on everything and anything but actual care of people.
When the money ran out, the hospital did not have the funds to continue the program — though it got an additional grant to screen patients for substance abuse and depression in two outpatient departments and track the results.
Instead of hospital-wide screening, Boston Medical Center is focusing its resources on looking for substance abuse problems among — and providing treatment to — emergency room and trauma patients, who have a particularly high rate of drug and alcohol abuse, said Dr. Peter Burke, chief of trauma.
“You have to put your money where you can do the most good,’’ he said.
And government is the last one you want placing it.
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Not many tests should come back positive here:
"Mass. ranks low overall in prescribing opioids; Long-acting pills an exception" by Yasmeen Abutaleb | Globe correspondent July 01, 2014
Massachusetts physicians rank among the top 10 nationally in prescribing OxyContin and other long-acting painkillers, according to a government report released Tuesday that highlighted wide state-by-state variation in the rates of use of addictive opioid medications.
But the state ranked low, 41st nationally, for overall prescribing of opioids, which have become a major concern because of rising rates of abuse and overdose deaths. Long-acting pain medications such as OxyContin are only one of several types of opioids, which also include methadone, codeine, and hydrocodone.
The drugs must have them so f***ed up their message is mixed. Ma$$ ranks low but high but low.
Addiction specialists said the Massachusetts figures were encouraging. Long-acting painkillers, often used for chronic pain by cancer patients and others, tend to be less addictive than short-acting pain pills when taken appropriately, said Dr. Jane Liebschutz, a general internal medicine physician at Boston Medical Center and an addiction researcher at Boston University.
OxyContin was once notorious because it was easily abused by addicts, but it and similar long-acting pain medications have been reformulated to keep users from crushing them to circumvent the time-release action. That may have led more doctors to prescribe them, Liebschutz said.
“It’s more advanced, a better practice that patients with chronic pain get extended relief,” Liebschutz said. “Massachusetts is doing well, and that’s the take-home message.”
I'm so sick of being messaged with propaganda narratives and the illusions and imagery that come with them. So sick of being propagandized by $hit government and insulted by their mouthpiece pre$$.
Governor Deval Patrick declared a public health emergency in March in response to rising opioid addictions and overdose deaths.
See: Malaise About Maine
Neither one of us went.
Many victims first become addicted to prescription medications and then switch to heroin, which is cheaper but riskier, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a conference call....
Oh, so the gateway drug is not demon weed marijuana at all, huh (what is with the Red Sox hat)?
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Also see: Vermont treatment centers track use of heroin antidote
Related: TD Garden leaders meet with police after dozens fell ill
Yeah, be careful clubbing. At least the effect wears off quick.
