Two weeks later

Two weeks after you have seen John in your office and you prescribed him the oxycodone, you get a call from the police in a nearby town. Apparently, John has been arrested for selling the oxycodone that you prescribed for his back pain.

The next day, you receive a letter from the College of Physicians & Surgeons notifying you that John has been precribed narcotics from several different physicians in the past 2 months. That would have been helpful to know earlier. You have heard that a new information system linking pharmacies and providing patient medication profiles will be available shortly. You hope that this arrives soon.

Be aware that these situations do happen. Narcotics are not the first choice drugs in managing acute back pain. If you do decide to prescribe a narcotic, consider to have the patient sign a Opoid contract.

End of case