Agency Acts to Ease Delays of Medications at Nursing Homes - NYTimes.com

Image via WikipediaBy NATASHA SINGER

The Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a new guideline intended to help ease the delay some nursing home residents face in receiving certain painkillers and anti-anxiety medications.

Physicians may now authorize nurses employed by long-term care facilities to phone in their oral prescriptions for these controlled substances to pharmacies, the agency said in a policy statement published on Wednesday in the Federal Register, the daily publication of changes to government rules.

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