System officials will ask doctors to scale back emergency-room use of narcotics

From the News-Press:

Lee Memorial Health System administrators, worried new state restrictions on pain medications will increasingly drive addicts to emergency rooms, are asking doctors to be more restrained in handing out painkillers.

The guidelines are voluntary — hospital policymakers can’t tell physicians how to treat individual patients — but signal an increased health system emphasis on non-narcotic emergency pain management.

Physicians also will be encouraged to talk about the dangers of pain medication abuse with their patients.