SEASONED FAMILY PHYSICIAN’S LICENSE SUSPENDED

(NO CONSERVATIVE CARE DOCUMENTATION)

I was in practice 30 years as a board certified family practitioner in a rural North Carolina community.                                                                                                                                                      Career Highlights;

  • EMS Medical Director for our county, spearheading development of our paramedic program from basic EMT.
  • Served on state and local committees serving our community
  • ACLS instructor for years, starting the first ACLS course for our county which continues to this day.
  • Medical Director for two nursing homes
  • Instrument rated pilot, serving as a Senior Aviation Medical Examiner

I was too busy to notice that I was being targeted by the State Medical Board seeking to decrease the number of opiates prescribed by eliminating the prescriber.  Over the years, I saw a lot of chronic pain patients resulting from working in a large truck manufacturing plant across the street from my practice.  Most pain clinics would see patients for procedures, then refer them back to me for refills. 

My license was suspended in 2012 after a patient got in a fight with a pharmacist over trying to return a BP cuff.  When the patient left, the pharmacist called the medical board stating that this patient was traveling over 2 hours to see me for an opiate prescription, and it “looked suspicious.”  The pharmacist did not try calling me, and later admitted he knew that I was only 25 mins away from his pharmacy.  Despite knowing this, the medical board decided to fully investigate and pulled 6 more charts.  All patients reviewed had documented reasons to be on opiates, all had drug contracts and were seen every month.  All had random drug screens and one was “fired” for cocaine in the drug screen.  I was heavily criticized for not having a section in my charting documenting that conservative care was tried either before opiates, or in conjunction with opiates.  My license was suspended, and I soon realized I did not have enough funds to fight the State.  Since I was busy and well known, taking me out of practice scared many other physicians in my region into not treating pain patients.

I believe that if Revert’s conservative care program had been a part of my practice, I would still be in practice today.

The suspension of my medical license due to the prescription drug epidemic gave birth to working on an innovation that ensures patient compliance with opiates once the prescription leaves the pharmacy. 

For more information how this invention protects your patients from opiate abuse, click on the following link;

www.thevaultsystem.com

John Barr, MD