Why you need to know if a patient uses cannabis
Medical Environment Update, April 26, 2020
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Medical Environment Update.
by Brian Ward
No matter the healthcare setting, local laws, or personal opinions on cannabis, healthcare providers everywhere have to treat patients who use cannabis or cannabinoid products. As a provider, you need to know how to have an open and honest discussion with patients about their cannabis use.
Depending on the amount and frequency of use, the active component of cannabis, THC, can last days to weeks in a patient’s body. Therefore, cannabis use is need-to-know information before prescribing other medications, particularly anesthesia, heart medicines, and drugs processed by the liver.
Benjamin Caplan, MD, is the founder of CED Clinic and a spokesman for Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, the only national physicians’ association in the United States dedicated to the effective regulation of cannabis. When patients seek treatment, they may already have questions about cannabis use on their health, he says, and providers need to have answers.
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Medical Environment Update.
Related Products
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- CDC alert: Screen for international travel as Ebola cases increase
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- Complications from immobility by body system
- Differentiate between types of wound debridement
- Nursing responsibilities for managing pain
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- The consequences of an incomplete medical record
- E-mailed
-
- CDC alert: Screen for international travel as Ebola cases increase
- Capturing start and stop times for infusions
- Differentiate between types of wound debridement
- Performing a SWOT analysis
- Life Safety Code Q&A: Ambulatory care soiled utility room
- Leadership training for charge nurses
- Helping Charge Nurses understand their leadership role (Part 2 of 3)
- Five ways to safeguard your patients' valuables
- Developing a Fall-Prevention Program
- Coding, billing, and documentation tips for teaching physicians, interns, residents, and students
- Searched