Pill Mills, Poppy Flowers, Dead Poets and the Human Resources Department

Having been through a seven-week federal criminal “pill mill” trial, I think a lot about enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act and its effect on physicians.  Aggressive enforcement effects others in healthcare as well, including management:

“It’s very hard for medical professionals and those in upper management, such as hospital CFOs, CEOs, and CMOs, to see themselves as criminals,” says Jack Sharman, partner at Lightfoot, Franklin, and White, a law firm headquartered in Birmingham, AL.

“This difficulty to perceive what someone else might think merits a criminal investigation impedes judgment and slows internal response.”

While physicians might not see themselves as criminals for managing patients’ pain or making sure they had enough pills to get through a holiday, it’s not hard for others to come to that conclusion, says Sharman.

Here is the full text of my interview with Health Leaders Media:What the Crackdown on Painkiller Prescribing Means for HR

 

If your recall for literature is not what it once was, In Flanders Field is a poem by John McRae, spoken from the point of view of World War I dead:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row, 
That mark our place, and in the sky, 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high! 
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.