FINDING THE CORRECT TREATMENT BALANCEUNDER MEDICATING/OVER MEDICATING OR CAPASSION OF MEETING IN THE MIDDLE WITH DIGNITY

FINDING THE CORRECT TREATMENT BALANCE
UNDER MEDICATING/OVER MEDICATING OR CAPASSION OF MEETING IN THE MIDDLE WITH DIGNITY
Many medical studies confirm that far too many patients die in pain in our hospitals, and that too many patients who are not terminally ill suffer unnecessarily from painful diseases, conditions, and medical treatments. In the past, courts have dealt with over prescribing and administering lethal doses of pain medication, but now courts are also addressing the issue of under medicating failures by care providers to manage a patient’s pain. Although medical and nursing boards have disciplined physicians and nurses for giving too much medicine, the new trend is being reversed as inadequate pain management is investigated and physicians and nurses are being held responsible and disciplined for under managing pain. Liabilities for under medicating include negligence (medical malpractice) for failure to medicate or failure to refer ...