Audit: Hospitals put Native Americans at risk with opioids
(WorldNews Business)

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - Government hospitals placed Native American patients at increased risk for opioid abuse and overdoses, failing to follow their own protocols for prescribing and dispensing the drugs, according to a federal audit released Monday. The report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services` Office of Inspector General doesn`t draw any conclusions about actual abuse or overdoses. But it said all five Indian Health Service hospitals it reviewed had patients who were given opioids in amounts that exceeded federal guidelines. `There are vulnerabilities with this particular population in the opioid prescribing and dispensing practices,` said Carla Lewis, one of the...