AHLTA and Drug Abuse
By
Bob Brewin
In <a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/health/25warrior.html>scathing article</a> on problems at the Army's Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Carson, Colo., the New York Times reported on April 24 that some clinicians at the post hand out so many prescription pain killers that troops in the unit have become addicted to narcotics.
In scathing article on problems at the Army's Warrior Transition Unit at Fort Carson, Colo., the New York Times reported on April 24 that some clinicians at the post hand out so many prescription pain killers that troops in the unit have become addicted to narcotics.
The newspaper also reported, "Medications are so abundant that some soldiers in the unit openly deal, buy or swap prescription pills."
Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, the Army surgeon general, said at a press briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday that the Army can track the use of prescription drugs everywhere in the service, including at the Fort Carson unit, using the Defense Department's electronic health records on its AHLTA network.
This raises the question why commanders at Fort Carson did not use AHLTA to determine if troops there had been prescribed so many drugs they could sell or swap them.
Is this too much to ask?
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