Another PCP who fails to drug test when prescribing long-term pain medications

Just reviewed records from Dr. Fred Luke Herscher of Sutherlin on one of his past patients. Here’s just another example of a PCP prescribing opiates for years but never following “guidelines” that had been published even long before the CDC guidelines. It was long recommended to perform drug testing at the first visit and occasional subsequent visits based on risks and more. How about NEVER doing a drug test? That’s what he didn’t do.

But then again these local PCP’s believed in giving opiates out pretty freely until it became a bigger national issue. Then they just took Medicare and OHP patients off their pills, but not patients who had good commercial insurance.

Take for instance, Dr. Timothy Powell of Evergreen Family Medicine in Roseburg who kept prescribing higher doses of Methadone to a patient that he knew was drinking alcohol to excess. The patients even ran out early but Dr. Powell kept refilling and occasionally increasing the dosages. But NEVER in YEARS of treatment did he ever bother to do a drug test!

After Dr. Powell quit seeing patients in primary care, the staff there made sure that patients were getting drug tested. Now he runs around urgent care and Mercy Medical Center creating issues for patients by denying them pain medications and letting them suffer.