Could it be
medical malpractice if a patient becomes addicted to narcotic painkillers that
were prescribed to battle chronic back pain?
It all depends on the circumstances and requires the advice of a medical
expert in the same field as the doctor being sued weighing in on the ‘standard
of care’.
An example
from an article in NOLO described a doctor who prescribed pain medication to
a patient who had a heroin addiction. Is
it malpractice if the patient did not disclose this past addiction? Another
example involves a physician who prescribed pain meds to a patient for
post-operative back pain. After five
years, the severe back pain was still present and the patient was now addicted
to the pain medication. A case could be
made that the doctor was negligent for not referring the patient to a pain
management specialist for treatment with non-narcotic drugs.
Especially
with the addition of meaningful use, physicians have very little time with
patients and often have to prescribe pain medications without being able to ask
every possible question about their history.
Guidelines
are in place that strictly require doctors to warn patients about the risks of
addiction. The question in a lawsuit
would be whether the patient heeded the warnings and followed instructions, or
was the physician negligent in giving proper warnings.
A medical
malpractice lawsuit about pain medication involves proving negligence on the
part of the doctor. However, could
lawsuits like these do more harm than good since doctors might be more
reluctant to provide pain medications for fear of lawsuits even if those
medications are necessary?
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