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Doctor Shopping
Chloe H. Fowler
November 21, 2016
Medical Terminology Online (BIT103)
Professor Joy L. Haagsma
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Chances are you’ve been to the doctor for an illness and have been prescribed an opioid
or other substance to help heal you. But, after you were healed, did you go back to not only your
primary doctor, but other ones in hope to be prescribed the same substance? “The term “doctor
shopping” has traditionally referred to a patient obtaining controlled substances from multiple
healthcare practitioners without the prescribers’ knowledge of the other prescriptions,” says
CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In other words, a patient will visit numerous
doctors to obtain various prescriptions that the doctors believe they need. However, the patients
are only increasing their addiction and taking advantage of the many medical practitioners they
are visiting. Doctor shopping is a big health care issue in the United States with the drug epidem-
ic that is occurring and can cause trouble for not only for the patients that are using but also for
