Growing up in a family of lawyers and politicians, you're raised to understand The System. What most people don't understand is that fiction is dramatic to be exciting and entertaining. The real world is a great deal different. The system takes power, nuance, and a lot of work on your time and your dime. Depending on where you are, the rules are always different, but there are always rules. Be a team player and you just might get somewhere. Screw up, and you'll find just how limiting the System can become. Not all cages have bars you can see. Doesn't mean you're not in a cage. Ask anyone whose lived in a ghetto, they know.
Patience, obedience, and manners are all a part of the dance. When you're not the authority, you better know how to relax and follow their lead. This is the same for police as it is for government bureaucrats as it is for doctors. The problem is, in a situations like that, even normal behavior can be painted as criminal shown in the "right" light. Not everyone knows what's normal and what's not, so if you start throwing big numbers around without any baseline for comparison, people assume it's impressive. Having a frame of reference is vital to know where things really stand.
Now a little math. Multiply 2,000 by once per month visits and that's 24,000 visits per year. Why once a month? Because pain medications are only doled out in once-per-month written prescriptions. Multiply that by three years, and that's 72,000 prescriptions over three years.
So when the news tells me that a pain doctor has written an "alarming" 30,000 prescriptions over three years, and try to paint that as excessive, first I laugh at the lie, and then I get really upset at the System.
This whole case against Dr. Xiulu Ruan and her fellow doctors is a farce. Doctors are expected to be able to diagnose in three minutes, and sometimes less! Do you think a gunshot wound waits for thirty minues for the doctors to interview their patients? The appointment is a formality for the patient. Most doctors are much smarter and faster than that.
When you see that she's also writing far fewer prescriptions than any given general practitioner, then the DEA's stance that that this is a "bad doctor" is just laughable. What's not laughable, however is the truth. The DEA is tearing apart the livelyhood of two doctors, smearing their good names, destroying a tax-paying business, costing a mountain of legal fees, destroying the jobs the doctors entire support staff, and putting all their patients lives on hold and at risk.
"Why?" You ask.
Because drug dealers shoot back. Doctors don't. The burden of defense is on the doctors. That pumps a hell of a lot more money into the System than taxes. All those doctors' possessions have been seized (asset forfiture), and the System is not required to give it back, even if the doctors are found innocent. Where do you think those possessions end up? Oh, some of it gets inventoried, sure, but things disappear too.
Who watches the watchmen? Do you think a uniform magically makes someone invulnerable to human weakness? Why do you think transparency in the System is important? Because the System will happily eat you for breakfast. Limits on Government and the rest of the System protects us from their tyrrany.
Plus, people in the System are pre-approved to go to the press and spread half-truths all day long. They can pat themselves on the back for "catching the bad guys." They look like they're doing their job, when actually it's the doctor's job to report to the DEA and provide the evidence to the System that eventually is used against them. It's really easy to do your job when others are required to do it for you. The DEA has a sweet racket going on. They don't have to do anything except bust law-abiding citizens and all other pain doctors are now terrified to do their job and help patients. That's a win-win in their book.
Pain, left untreated or under-treated can easily grow into chronic pain*, for reasons not fully understood at this time. Does the DEA care? Not a bit. To them, every patient is a junky and every doctor a dealer and hospitals are cartels. They can force their victims through laws and regulations to dig their own graves.
Welcome to reality.
*PubMed — Can J Anaesth. 2014 Feb;61(2):112-22. doi: 10.1007/s12630-013-0087-4. Epub 2013 Nov 26.
The transition from acute to chronic pain: understanding how different biological systems interact.
Mifflin KA1, Kerr BJ. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Patience, obedience, and manners are all a part of the dance. When you're not the authority, you better know how to relax and follow their lead. This is the same for police as it is for government bureaucrats as it is for doctors. The problem is, in a situations like that, even normal behavior can be painted as criminal shown in the "right" light. Not everyone knows what's normal and what's not, so if you start throwing big numbers around without any baseline for comparison, people assume it's impressive. Having a frame of reference is vital to know where things really stand.
"The numbers are pretty stunning. A 2012 article in the Annals of Family Medicine noted that the average primary-care physician has about 2,300 patients on his "panel"— that is, the total under his or her care. Worse, it said that each physician would have to "spend 21.7 hours per day to provide all recommended acute, chronic and preventive care for a panel of 2,500 patients." I'm not sure I'd want that doc seeing me at the end of that long a day at the office.
"According to a 2013 survey by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the average member of that group has 93.2 "patient encounters" each week — in an office, hospital or nursing home, on a house call or via an e-visit. That's about 19 patients per day. The family physicians said they spend 34.1 hours in direct patient care each week, or about 22 minutes per encounter, with 2,367 people under each physician's care."
— Washington Post - "How Many Patients Should Your Doctor See Each Day?" April 22, 2014
Now a little math. Multiply 2,000 by once per month visits and that's 24,000 visits per year. Why once a month? Because pain medications are only doled out in once-per-month written prescriptions. Multiply that by three years, and that's 72,000 prescriptions over three years.
So when the news tells me that a pain doctor has written an "alarming" 30,000 prescriptions over three years, and try to paint that as excessive, first I laugh at the lie, and then I get really upset at the System.
This whole case against Dr. Xiulu Ruan and her fellow doctors is a farce. Doctors are expected to be able to diagnose in three minutes, and sometimes less! Do you think a gunshot wound waits for thirty minues for the doctors to interview their patients? The appointment is a formality for the patient. Most doctors are much smarter and faster than that.
When you see that she's also writing far fewer prescriptions than any given general practitioner, then the DEA's stance that that this is a "bad doctor" is just laughable. What's not laughable, however is the truth. The DEA is tearing apart the livelyhood of two doctors, smearing their good names, destroying a tax-paying business, costing a mountain of legal fees, destroying the jobs the doctors entire support staff, and putting all their patients lives on hold and at risk.
"Why?" You ask.
Because drug dealers shoot back. Doctors don't. The burden of defense is on the doctors. That pumps a hell of a lot more money into the System than taxes. All those doctors' possessions have been seized (asset forfiture), and the System is not required to give it back, even if the doctors are found innocent. Where do you think those possessions end up? Oh, some of it gets inventoried, sure, but things disappear too.
Who watches the watchmen? Do you think a uniform magically makes someone invulnerable to human weakness? Why do you think transparency in the System is important? Because the System will happily eat you for breakfast. Limits on Government and the rest of the System protects us from their tyrrany.
Plus, people in the System are pre-approved to go to the press and spread half-truths all day long. They can pat themselves on the back for "catching the bad guys." They look like they're doing their job, when actually it's the doctor's job to report to the DEA and provide the evidence to the System that eventually is used against them. It's really easy to do your job when others are required to do it for you. The DEA has a sweet racket going on. They don't have to do anything except bust law-abiding citizens and all other pain doctors are now terrified to do their job and help patients. That's a win-win in their book.
Pain, left untreated or under-treated can easily grow into chronic pain*, for reasons not fully understood at this time. Does the DEA care? Not a bit. To them, every patient is a junky and every doctor a dealer and hospitals are cartels. They can force their victims through laws and regulations to dig their own graves.
Welcome to reality.
*PubMed — Can J Anaesth. 2014 Feb;61(2):112-22. doi: 10.1007/s12630-013-0087-4. Epub 2013 Nov 26.
The transition from acute to chronic pain: understanding how different biological systems interact.
Mifflin KA1, Kerr BJ. Centre for Neuroscience, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
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