title: Feigning terminal illness to get narcotics: a cautionary tale for hospices.
abstract: We present the case of a woman who enrolled in the hospice benefit in order to obtain narcotics. We believe this is a cautionary tale for hospices because of our propensity to enroll patients with minimal corroborating information, in order not to delay symptom management. Also we are philosophically predisposed to believe a patient's self-report of pain and other distressing symptoms.
authors.affiliation: 1Hospice of Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach, FL 33407, USA. fagonzalez@hpbc.com
authors.forename: Faustino
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: Mirta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Galante
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000701:Analgesics, Opioid / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D055030:Drug Users; D005260:Female; D006738:Hospices; D006801:Humans; D004091:Hydromorphone / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D009110:Munchausen Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D063487:Prescription Drug Misuse; D057566:Self Report
chemical_list: D000701:Analgesics, Opioid; D004091:Hydromorphone