Opioids

To answer Rudy's question about narcotics, they are not regulated by a governing body like the DEA. They are not categorized as schedules I-V like in the US; they're not categorized at all. It's the pharmacists' responsibility to regulate their opioid inventory and make sure they are kept safe and being used appropriately. If a physician prescribes an opioid and Mariet notices that the patient hasn't been on an NSAID, she will call and ask why they haven't tried it first. Their narcotic of choice is morphine but they also use everything else we do except Vicodin and Percocet - at least not in Vorden. Mariet counts these drugs once per month to make sure the inventory is correct and if it is off, she needs to find out why and fix it. It is rarely wrong and usually a result of a computer error. If she cannot not account for her narcotic count being wrong or if she discovers someone is stealing/using it, which has never happened in her pharmacy, she tells the region inspector. She also reports physicians that are prescribing too many narcotics to the inspector and an investigation is started. Next week I'm spending a day traveling with the inspector and will have more information about their role in pharmacy.