State investigates doctors who prescribe high doses of opioids

RALEIGH — Channel 9 uncovered a statewide investigation naming and disciplining physicians and physician’s assistants for giving high doses of opioids.

In April of 2016, the North Carolina Medical Board launched a special initiative to increase oversight of opioid prescribing in the state. The Safe Opioid Prescribing Initiative uses information from North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to identify prescribers to investigate.

The medical board looked into the top 2 percent of those prescribing 100 milligrams of morphine equivalents per patient per day.

State reports:

• Roy George Waronsky, PA-C

The top 2 percent of those prescribing 100 MMEs per patient per day in combination with any benzodiazepines and prescribers with two or more patient deaths in the preceding 12 months due to opioid poisoning who prescribed opioids within 60 days of death.

About 73 cases were investigated and of those, the medical board issued an action against about 40 percent of them.

In only 12 percent of the cases were the punishments public.

One doctor and one physician’s assistant from the Charlotte area were issued public actions.

In one case, a physician’s assistant, Roy Waronsky, was accused of “unprofessional conduct."  A report said one of his patients “suffers from opioid use disorder and has a history of multiple opioid overdoses."

Waronsky, "continued to prescribe more than 400 morphine milligram equivalents" to the patient.  Another patient even tested “positive for heroin.”  The report said despite this information, Waronsky continued to prescribe high doses of opioid.

In another case, Dr. Carrol Ellison of Morganton was accused of “unprofessional conduct.” The report said the trained obstetrician kept some patients on “high doses of opioids” and “performed few to no urine drug screens.”

“There's a small number who are consciously abusing privilege to prescribe,” North Carolina Rep. Kelly Alexander. He said doctors statewide need more training in pain management. He also supports legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.

“You get a drop in the number of patients seeking opioids sometimes as high as 30 percent,” he said.

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