profession
Tips offered on prescribing controlled substances
Posted Sept. 6, 2010
A new tip sheet from the American Medical Association and the American Medical Directors Assn. advises physicians how to comply with federal law on prescribing controlled substances.
Beginning in 2009, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency began taking actions against long-term-care pharmacies for dispensing controlled substances without written physician orders. Traditionally, physicians have given these orders orally with nurses acting as their agents.
The AMA, the AMDA and other medical groups are lobbying Congress and the DEA to change the rules. In the meantime, the groups have released guidelines for physicians on how to comply with the law.
Physicians caring for nursing home or long-term-care patients should, for example, fax their controlled-substance orders to pharmacies and purchase a home fax machine for after-hours or weekend calls, says the tip sheet, released in August.
The document is available on the AMA's website (link).
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/09/06/prbf0906.htm.
