Nice “Substance Abuse Treatment” Photos

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Delaware Governor Jack Markell speaks at the signing ceremony for the Delaware Prescription Monitoring Act

Image by Christiana Care
July 22, 2010 – With Christiana Hospital’s Emergency Department as a backdrop, Governor Jack Markell signed into law the Delaware Prescription Monitoring Act to combat misuse of prescription medicine. Several Christiana Care leaders, including Dr. Robert Laskowski, president and CEO, Dr. Charles Reese, chairman of Christiana Care’s Emergency Medicine Department, and Dr. Leonard Nitowski joined the Governor for the bill signing.

The law creates a database of prescriptions for certain controlled substances such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, Adderall, Valium and Percocet. Doctors and pharmacists will be able to check the database before giving prescriptions to check drug interactions and screen for possible misuse.

A report released the same day by National Drug Policy Director Gil Kerkikowske revealed a 400 percent increase between 1998 and 2008 of substance-abuse treatment admissions for those 12 and over reporting abuse of prescription pain relievers. The increase in the percentage of admissions abusing pain relievers spans every age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, employment level and region.

"Caring for our patients includes ensuring proper protections against misuse of prescription medicines,” said Dr. Laskowski. “This new monitoring database will aid our doctors and pharmacists in better connecting prescription information and help keep our patients safe.”