Sing it!
The American Medical Association AMA just concluded their Annual Meeting of the House of Delegates in Chicago on Wednesday, June 19th. And it seems as if the profession of pharmacy was a topic of conversation. According to the AMAWire, one of the points of discussion for the delegates this year was pharmacist inquiries with practitioners to verify controlled substances. This is the statement they released in response that you will find on the AMA’s website: The AMA delegates “Issued a warning against “inappropriate inquiries” from pharmacies to verify the medical rationale behind prescriptions and diagnoses, calling them unwarranted interference with the practice of medicine.” Forgive me for being a bit confused about the last part of that statement. I’ve always been under the impression that the duty of a pharmacist was to ensure prescriptions were written for a legitimate medical condition in the course of a practitioner’s normal scope of practice. If we are being accused of interference, shall we then be relieved of all responsibilities toward ensuring the best interests of our patients? Are we not the drug expert profession that is the last stop in the chain of treatment from provider to the patient?
And can’t the pharmacist lose his license or be imprisoned for being insufficiently diligent in dispensing controlled substances?
Working in palliative care as I do now I get calls everyday from pharmacists questioning whether I actually wrote a prescription or not. Never mind they can look up the patient on the state registry and see I have been writing the same prescription for the same patient for the past three years. Just wait until the DEA gets its wish of moving Vicodin to a Class II schedule.