Opioids Use Disorder
Substance use abuse and prescriptions are on the prevalence in the country. Opioids which are generally used to relieve pain and relax the body due to their chemical composition are increasingly being misused and significantly prescribed by the physicians as well. The clinical implications of substance misuse are the impairment of health and various social function implication on the health of a person. However, multiple strategies have been implemented by the government through ramping up treatment availability while the physicians adopt the Electronic Health Records in prescribing opioids. The purpose of the study is to examine the applicability of the policies and use of EHRs to prescribing opioids in providing quality primary care to the patients.
Through the study of opioid prescribing by physicians with and without electronic health records, the study seeks to find out how significantly have the physicians managed in solving the use of opioids epidemic. The adoption of EHRs by physicians at quite an alarming rate provides the need for investigation on the applicability of the system. However the study through a sample of 33,090 visits analysis of the primary care physicians carried out by the National Medical Care Survey showed that quite a significant percent of the population with chronic pain not resulting from cancer ended up being prescribed with opioids using the EHRs (Harle, et al. 2014). However the clinical visits without the EHRs use showed few probabilities of the same patients being prescribed with opioids. The 1.38times of EHRs prescribing opioids to patients shows that the physician are significantly worsening the problem of opioids misuse (Harle, et al. 2014). The patients are likely to generate a tendency of using opioids when in pain, thus creating an addiction.
Therefore through this particular study, physicians should have a clear understanding of the system. However the system should also become monitored due to the possibility of influencing the behavior of prescription of opioids whenever a patient exhibits pain. A multidisciplinary approach is as well required to train the physicians on when to administer opioids to reduce the prevalence of opioids use and its resulting disorders.. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Consequently, a similar study on pain management and the risk prescription of opioid use seeks to investigate the various strategies and policies put in place and how they provide quality health care and deal with the opioid use disorder epidemic. Almost over half a million cases have opioid use disorder associated with the use of heroin. By measuring the effectiveness of the strategies, the study utilizes randomized control trials (Phillips et al. 2017). The prescription problem arises once more with the consequences of the uncontrolled and unchecked prescriptions promoting addiction levels.
The study utilized the study of patients exposed to uncontrolled prescription strategy and those exposed to controlled and checked prescription strategy (Phillips et al. 2017). The approach, however, is questionable on the grounds of ethicality, and the resulting results would have inconclusive information on the implementation of the policies on a broad population rather than a localized group due to the differences in the conditions.
The policy of the government is ramping out the use of opioids is arguably not effective right known since it has more consequential effects such as increased deaths from the lack of the drug. However during the future the implementation is believed to reduce the opioid use disorders prevalence (Phillips, et al. 2017). Nevertheless, the ramping out should not become implemented at once without considering the people already affected by addiction and also the overdose effects of using the drug. Therefore the study acknowledges the need for a multidisciplinary approach in dealing with the issue of opioids in the country to prevent its continued increase in prevalence cases.
While implementing the policies, the FDA needs to come up with plans of also ensuring that the problem of nonlinear response is avoided. The issue results from people turning to illegal ways of obtaining the drug through the black market, which may result in many cases of overdosing (Phillips et al. 2017). There is a need to carry out a control measure in the system approach to prevent the vice through implementing the strategies similar to the other drugs control, such as the Tobacco control program helping people to cope with the addiction of Tobacco through a multidisciplinary approach.
Consequently, the problem of substance abuse is a concern to all the people in the society and not the healthcare and government alone. The nation should come on board since the problem is far much extensive than imagined affecting the community in various ways. However, for the physicians and the policymakers to achieve considerable progress in combating the problem, they require a multidisciplinary approach regulating and controlling the access of the drugs over the counter and only receive under doctors’ directive. There is a need to educate physicians on the use of EHRs to prevent the system from controlling their behavior, which, instead of solving the problem, worsens the issue by enhancing addiction. The government nevertheless should also increase their efforts regarding the use of the opioid disorder problem through implementing short term and long-term policies and also considering the multidisciplinary approach as well as incorporating the affected patients in recovery and rehabilitation programs.
References
Harle, C. A., et al. (2014). Opioid prescribing by physicians with and without electronic health records. Journal of medical systems, 38(11), 138.
Phillips, J. K., Ford, et al. (2017). Evidence on Strategies for Addressing the Opioid Epidemic. In Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic: Balancing Societal and Individual Benefits and Risks of Prescription Opioid Use. National Academies Press (US).