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Doctor barred from prescribing narcotics

3:44 PM Wed, Apr 08, 2009 |
Felice Freyer    Email

By Felice Freyer
Journal Staff Reporter

Dr. Bruce W. Hookway, a Pawtucket internist, has given up his right to prescribe narcotics after the state found he prescribed painkillers in spite of evidence that the drugs were being abused and sold.
Hookway, who works at the Blackstone Valley Community Health Center, was also placed on probation for two years. He has agreed to undergo training in narcotics prescribing and volunteer a half-day per month at the Rhode Island Free Clinic while he is on probation.
Dr. Robert S. Crausman, chief administrative officer of state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, emphasized that Hookway was not disciplined because he was prescribing narcotics for pain control, but because he was "not doing it responsibly."
"There's a lack of meaningful evaluation and a clear lack of attention to obvious signs of diversion and potential drug abuse," Crausman said.
"In every other dimension of his practice," Crausman said of Hookway, "he was a good doctor. This is an area of practice for which he seems to be particularly ill-suited. This person seems to have a blind spot for this type of practice and this type of patient."

Hookway came to the board's attention last year when a pharmacist reported a case in which a patient was seeking early refills and excessive doses of narcotics. The patient was young man taking OxyContin for back pain, but there were no imaging studies or specialty consultations. The medical record showed that the patient's family members had expressed concern that he was abusing the drugs and the patient had confessed to being "hooked."

As the board was preparing a "plan of remediation" for Hookway, it received a report of another patient receiving large quantities of OxyContin, oxycodone and methadone. The patient had a history of opiate abuse. He was in a treatment program even as Hookway prescribed narcotics for various injuries, and eventually left the treatment program while continuing to take drugs prescribed by Hookway.

After the board learned of the second patient, Hookway surrendered his Rhode Island Controlled Substances and U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency registrations. As a result he can no longer prescribe controlled substances, which are narcotics and tranquilizers with a high risk of abuse.

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Comments

Frymaster said:

As Bill Burroughs would have said, "You burned down the croaker."

Link | April 10, 2009 4:31 PM
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