An Indiana doctor who made the decision not to prescribe opioids to a woman because he didn’t feel it was the best way to treat her condition was shot and killed a couple hours later by the woman’s husband.
The story actually happened over a year ago, but I ended up learning about it late last week. Dr. Todd Graham was going about his day as normal when a new patient walked into his office complaining of pain. After going through his routine, Dr. Graham determined that the pain was chronic in nature and that treatments other than passive opioids would be the best bet for this woman.
That news did not sit well with the woman or her husband, Michael Jarvis, who came with her to the clinic. An argument ensued, and eventually the couple left the clinic without opioids. A couple hours later, Dr. Graham left the orthopedic building to visit a rehabilitation building he worked at, but he never made it there. Dr. Graham was confronted by Jarvis in the parking lot where a fatal confrontation took place. Jarvis produced a semi-automatic weapon and shot Dr. Graham for not prescribing his wife opioids.
Opioid Abuse and Medicine Today
Opioid abuse is on the rise, and the sad reality is that Dr. Graham likely isn’t going to be the last healthcare provider to be injured or killed by a patient who is upset that they were not prescribed opioids. We have an overburdened healthcare industry where it’s easier to prescribe pain relievers and meet patient quotas than it is to really spend time with a patient, uncover their needs and fit them with an appropriate treatment plan.
I try my best to give every patient the time they deserve, and while I have a little more schedule flexibility as a practitioner at my own clinic, many doctors cannot say the same. They need to see a certain amount of patients and bill enough time in order to keep the higher ups happy. We’re sacrificing human health in order to boost our bottom lines, and patients are paying for it.
And then, when someone finally comes along and tries to break this cycle of over-prescribing, he ends up getting killed because either Jarvis, his wife, or both have likely become addicted to opioids. We won’t know how they arrived at this point in their addiction, but they arrived nonetheless, and the healthcare system isn’t doing much to help. When someone really tries to understand the patient and help their needs, it backfires and costs them their life.
So where do we go from here? We need changes, and lots of them. For starters, we need a heavy investment of government research dollars into treating and understanding the complexity of pain. Once we better understand individualized pain, we can provide better treatment options. We also need to reduce the burden on doctors who are overburdened and overscheduled, and we need to make the bottom line more patient-focused than money-focused. And finally, we need to revamp opioids. We need to find safer, less addictive options, and we need to re-evaluate who is a candidate to receive these medications, because overprescribing can lead to dependence and addition.
Hopefully we can start taking some steps towards these changes soon, otherwise more doctors are going to be targeted by patients.
