CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES The framework of controlling substances gives practitioners the authority of prescribing controlled medications under controlled drugs and substance act. This was aimed at enhanc

CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES

The framework of controlling substances gives practitioners the authority of prescribing controlled medications under controlled drugs and substance act. This was aimed at enhancing flexibility as well as timelessness in primary service care. However, at any given time where there is a prescriptive authority of controlled substances, there is a very big likelihood of drug abuse by the administrators of these drugs. One good case that we can use to describe this is Heather Alonso’s case scenario an APRN who ended up using her position in prescribing controlled substances under the Medicare drug program. Nurse practitioners are not in any case allowed to prescribe schedule 2 drugs such as Opioids simply because there is a very high possibility that the drugs will be abused. These issues arise when the medical practitioners compromise their practice and they administer highly controlled substances contrary to the set rules and regulations. This is mainly because these professionals are given hefty payments to carry out these practices.

There various steps that can be carried out to control substance misuse. Carrying out diagnostic workouts is the first step to ensure that patients are only given drugs after they have undergone a thorough diagnosis (Brummond,et al., 2017). This particular practitioner issued out drugs without the patients were medically reviewed. Secondly, utilizing prescription databases will help in curbing the vice. This is because the database will store the medical history of the patients giving information on whether the patient has received medication from multiple health facilities. This will help to screen the genuine patients and those who are not. Similarly, countries can adopt a monitoring program that will help in monitoring the administration of controlled drugs checking all drugs that are under control (Moyo, et al., 2019). Monitoring programs will ensure that surprise done to see how drug administrators are giving out the drugs. Striker control and surveillance are necessary to stop the abuse of drugs.

References

Brummond, P. W., Chen, D. F., Churchill, W. W., Clark, J. S., Dillon, K. R., Dumitru, D., … & Jurakovich, K. (2017). ASHP guidelines on preventing diversion of controlled substances.

Moyo, P., Simoni‐Wastila, L., Griffin, B. A., Harrington, D., Alexander, G. C., Palumbo, F., & Onukwugha, E. (2019). Prescription drug monitoring programs: Assessing the association between “best practices” and opioid use in Medicare.Health services research,54(5), 1045-1054.