THE RESPONSIBLE CARE OFFERED BY SAMPSON REGIONAL

A policy aimed at halting the dispensing of narcotic pain medication
in Sampson Regional Medical Center's emergency room is a good one that
needed implementation.

And while we are sure it will cause hospital personnel untold
criticism, it is a move that will help people far more than it will
ever hurt them.

On Feb. 1, Sampson Regional implemented a policy that halts the
refilling of narcotic pain and sedative medications to those
classified as having chronic pain.

According to hospital staff, the new policy requires that doctors and
nurses only dispense non-narcotic pain meds to the ERs chronic pain
patients, those, defined by the policy as have more than two visits to
the emergency department in a month or six visits in a year.

It's one of those policies warranted by societal problems that always
seem to escalate, and while we're sure it's one Sampson Regional
officials would rather have avoided, we know it was needed.

Dr. Steven Kelley, chief of emergency medicine at Sampson Regional
said with abuse of narcotic drugs growing and more and more people
frequenting hospital ERs and other providers in search of pain meds,
the new policy was necessary.

It's unfortunate, but Kelley is absolutely correct.

While we tend to see and read more about those arrested for use, abuse
and distribution of illegal drugs, there are hundreds upon thousands
of people who abuse legal medications on a regular basis.

All the hospital is doing is taking its emergency department out of
the mix. And well it should.

The hospital ER is usually teeming with sick patients, many in
desperate need of emergency care. Others, however, are there for the
third, fourth and sometimes fifth time in a month, complaining of
pains they have that need to be treated with medications like Codeine,
Hydrocodone, Oxycodone, Morphine, Oxycotin, Xanax and Valium, among
others.

There are even some who use fictitious names upon returning to the
hospital just t up their chances of receiving the medications.

These ploys will no longer work, hospital officials
say.

That does not mean, however, that patients who truly need help in
reducing their pain won't get it. The policy doesn't hinder terminally
ill patients from getting the help they need nor will it prevent the
best possible care for those who must go to the ER.

What it does, as hospital officials have pointed out, is provide
responsible care.

And that's what everyone should want from whatever hospital they need,
whenever they need it.

We're glad we have people at Sampson Regional who will provide that
responsible care each and every day, all year long.