Physician Dispensing and the Opioid Crisis

Some pharmacists point to physician dispensing, the practice of doctors providing prescription medication directly to patients in the office instead of writing prescriptions to be filled at a pharmacy, as a driver of prescription opiate abuse. There are no comprehensive studies that measure whether...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Drug Topics 2019-08, Vol.163 (8), p.8-8
Main Authors: Ni, Jonathan, Benedict, Nicholas
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Drug overdose
Drug stores
Drugstores
Heroin
Incentives
Medical practice
Narcotics
Opioid abuse
Opioids
Overdose
Patient education
Pharmacists
Pharmacy
Physicians
Prescription writing
Prescriptions
Prescriptions (Drugs)
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Summary:Some pharmacists point to physician dispensing, the practice of doctors providing prescription medication directly to patients in the office instead of writing prescriptions to be filled at a pharmacy, as a driver of prescription opiate abuse. There are no comprehensive studies that measure whether this incentive skews physician behavior, but many studies have shown that economic incentives impact the decisions some doctors make, including a recent case where doctors were successfully bribed to prescribe opioids to their patients. Another risk factor is that clinic staff may not have the training or tools to duplicate the pharmacists' role in patient education or check for errors and interaction effects.
ISSN:0012-6616
1937-8157