The US appears by all accounts to be in the middle of an epidemic when it comes to drug abuse, specifically pain killers. Reports have come in showing pain reliever abuse to have increased over 100 percent in just the last five years. In addition to this, nearly twenty percent of all office visits to a doctor will result in a prescription for narcotics. You may be wondering why you should drug test your patients and if this is the case, but just take a look at some of these reasons for urine drug tests.
Objectivity in Prescribing
You’re prescribing narcotics to your patients and that means you need to document who is sticking by their prescription. Sending a drug test out to the lab can be one of the easiest ways to verify that your patients are utilizing the drugs you’re prescribing. Regardless of the age, a patient should be tested if you’re prescribing pain meds. Imagine what you would do if you find the urine is negative for what you’re prescribing but is positive for cocaine or heroin?
Moving Toward Standard Procedure
More states are cracking down on regulating prescriptions for narcotics and because of this it won’t be long before they require you to screen your patients. Many medical boards are already recommending this as a standard procedure.
Protection for Your Practice
You will want to protect your practice from lawsuits. With drug screening you can protect from legal problems. If this patient is selling their medication and the person who buys it gets involved in an accident the trail of drugs can lead back to the doctor. In order to prevent yourself from being implicated it’s good to have a record of tests showing that your patient has been taking the drugs that you have prescribed.