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Pa., doctors trying to limit patient risk for opioid addiction

Pennsylvania has a new system to make sure people don't “doctor shop” for extra opioid prescriptions.

“We've made leaps and bounds in battling this,” said Dr. Jack Kabazie, the system director for Allegheny Health Network’s division of pain medicine.

Dr. Kabazie is hopeful the systems of checks and balances in place to prevent opioid addiction are working, but we're not there yet, he says. While it's harder for patients to doctor shop from one state to another, all it takes is one prescription to change someone's life forever.

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A year ago I had knee surgery, and just a few hours after the surgery I was allowed to go home and was even able to walk on the knee with help from crutches. But for the pain, I was prescribed 90 hydrocodone pills.

After three days, I had no need for the them, but still had about 75 pills at my disposal. Statistics say I should be addicted right now.

"You were at risk," Dr. Kabazie told me. "You were clearly put in a situation where you were at risk.
"They don't go into that surgery with opioids. They come out of that surgery, if they get opioids for more than five days, there's a significant probability that they are going to still be on opioids whether they need them or not for a year out."

But Dr. Kabazie says it's not necessarily the physician’s fault. The challenge is making them aware of the impact.

“Sometimes doctors hear it but they don't listen to it,” Dr. Kabazie said. “And there’s the dilemma. We hear things, we see things, but we may not think it's reflective of how we're practicing.”

To help doctors out, a mandatory policy was put in place this June. Doctors must now assess their patients for risk of addiction before prescribing opioids.