Reply DB4

dentify what issues may arise with the prescriptive authority of controlled substances and how you may avoid these situations?

Whenever there is a prescriptive authority of controlled substances, there is likely to be an abuse of the same by drug administrators. This has been demonstrated by the case of Heather Alonso, who was an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) and used her position to prescribe controlled substances under the Medicare drug program. Nurse practitioners are not supposed to prescribe schedule 2 drugs since there is a high potential that they will be abused. Such issues mainly arise when medical practitioners compromise their practice and administer highly controlled substances contrary to rules and regulations, mainly because they receive hefty payments for the same.

To control the administration of controlled substances, the first step that must be taken is to ensure that a diagnostic workup is conducted (Young, 2018). The diagnostic workup will enable physicians to properly diagnose a patient before administering any drug. In the case of Heather Alonso, many of the patients were not being reviewed hence leading to prescriptions being administered wrongly. The second step that must be taken is to utilize prescription databases and obtain a medical history of the patient. The database will give information on whether the patient has received medication from multiple doctors. Screening for drug seeking is also necessary as it will enable one to establish if the patient is genuine or they are just abusing drugs.  Also, states can revamp their prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) which will have better standards for monitoring the administrati0n of controlled drugs (Perrone & Nelson, 2012). All the drugs which fall under schedule 2-5 are monitored. This will enable the states to understand whether stricter control and surveillance is needed. Through the PDMP, surprise audits can be done at the premises of drug administrators to check whether the necessary guidelines are being followed.This will lead to better monitoring and control when it comes to administration of controlled substances.

References

Young, J. (2018).Best Practices When Prescribing Controlled Substances. Retrieved from

Perrone, J., & Nelson, L. S. (2012). Medication reconciliation for controlled substancesan ideal prescription-drug monitoring program. New England Journal of Medicine, 366(25), 2341-2343.