From the Times-Tribune
A new legal requirement that physicians check patients’ drug history and report prescriptions of painkilling drugs to the state’s electronic tracking system, KASPER, will delay treatment for critical care patients and put doctors in fear of criminal liability.
…by applying the new rules, designed to halt fly-by-night clinics dispensing pain killing medication for cash without usual medical procedures, to hospitals and other critical care medical institutions will delay treatment to patients with legitimate need for the medication, such patients as emergency room, surgical and cancer patients, said several of those addressing the committee.
“The effect is an absolute delay in patient treatment,” said Roz Cordini, an attorney who represents the Kentucky Hospital Association.
Those restrictions, applied to hospitals and emergency rooms, are “not consistent with the realities of medical practice,” said Dr. Steven Stack, an emergency physician from Lexington.
Stack and Dr. Melissa Platt, president of the Kentucky Chapter of American College of Emergency Physicians, said sometimes patients in great pain simply can’t wait for their doctors to go through the procedures required by the new law. That, Platt said, forces doctors to choose between breaking the law or treating legitimate patient needs.
“It confronts the physician with the untenable choice of complying with the law or with medical ethics,” Stack added.
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