Tuesday, March 11, 2014

The Perils of Problematic Prescribing: A Double Dose of Warnings

Twice this week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has pointed to the harm caused by aberrant and inappropriate prescribing by physicians.

First, the CDC reported Monday that doctors are a primary source of narcotic painkillers for chronic abusers at the highest risk of overdoses.  Physicians edged out even family, friends and drug dealers. More than 16,000 people died of narcotic overdoses in 2010, the most recent year for which data is available, the CDC has reported.

On Tuesday, the public health agency said that it found  vast differences in the use of antibiotics  among different hospitals’ medical/surgical wards. Doctors in some hospitals prescribed three times as many antibiotics as those in other hospitals. The CDC also said that in about one-third of cases, prescriptions for the antibiotic vancomycin included a potential error – either it was prescribed without proper tests or evaluation, or given for too long.

Full Article and Source:
The Perils of Problematic Prescribing:  A Double Dose of Warnings

3 comments:

Thelma said...

Drugs have a domino effect: take one and you need another - and another and another!

Take vitamin supplements and natural remedies instead.

Thelma said...

Drugs have a domino effect: take one and you need another - and another and another!

Take vitamin supplements and natural remedies instead.

StandUp said...

Watch out for doctors. That's the lesson here.