IPN multiple day evaluation

[MoseleyMO, RN]

At the end of my shift (OR nurse) literally heading into locker room to change. My director asks me if I have a minute to walk down with him to admin. I say sure, they’ve done me like this before when they wanted to surprise me with awards.. been at this hospital since 2010, when I was still in RN school, they selected me to be a nurse intern there. Only hospital I have ever worked at. Anyways I get to admin and there is HR director, CNO, and now me and my director. It takes a second or 10 but he finally spits out that “earlier in my shift, a few co workers, said that I had a flat affect and slurred speech. We need you to do urine screen!” I was shocked! Earlier in my shift?!? If I was thought to be impaired, there was no reason to wait until the end of my day. There had been turbulence in our department for sometime. High turnover, I had even tried to leave and go to the VA. Got a offer from them, went through the entire process only to be shut down over an RX for Marinol I was getting from pain management. Was told any THC RX or not, was not allowed for federal jobs. Anyway, long story short, I resigned my position refused the drug screen. The CNO reported me to the board and IPN involved. Did my initial eval with a Dr. in Gainesville, Florida. Hair, blood test were both negative. Urine only showed fioricet that I get for migraines. I had only been taking the Marinol PRN, and was completely off of narcotics (Lortab) since November of last year. So not enough THC to even show in my hair. Recommendation from IPN is to do a multiple day evaluation, with psychological evaluation and neurocognitive psychometric testing. Can anyone tell me what this entails? Does this happen often? I feel like since they really have no evidence against me that they are now fishing for anything to get my money... also the anesthesiologists I worked with the day of the “incident”, and the Surgical Technician wrote letters to negate my slurred speech and flat affect. My PCP also wrote a letter and spoke with the evaluators staff about me, that I’m not a drug seeker, and I’ve been a patient of his for years. Oh and let me also get out that in the Orthopaedic room which I refused to work in. A married tech and anesthesiologists have been having an affair that I knew about, and the entire department was told “not to talk about it!” Hot mess I know! Please just give me some insight.

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

Oh....be so very careful. This sounds like the carbon copy of my experience with an initial evaluation at the same place (I have suspicions who saw you but TOS says I can’t say) that ‘recommended’ the same ‘multiple day neuropsychiatric blah blah...’ It wound up being the first week of their inpatient drug rehab program. I should have seen the flags when I showed up for it and they took away my phone and car keys and searched my bag. Even scarier was that I only brought enough clothes for a few days. I didn’t come home for 6 months. It was a major, manipulative mind****. What brought me into the clutches of IPN did not need drug rehab as a solution, of that is definite.

What I foresee (especially if you go back there, because of course, IPN will select where you may go for this next and more expensive, cash only evaluation) is you will be housed with the inpatient rehab folks, be subject to a bunch of computer based tests that will not make much sense, chats with maybe a psychiatrist, probably some psychologist of some sort, even a Rorschach test of all things and at the end they will recommend ‘inpatient treatment, to begin immediately, for your safety. Oh and you’ll get dragged to a bunch of 12 step meetings too.

While there isn’t much that you’ve said that isn’t hearsay that justifies IPNs talons, except that you refused a drug test. That’s a big one because refusal makes people wonder what you might be hiding. Even though, whatever it may have been positive for, you have a script for, refusal still looks really bad. The thing with IPN, is that I know of no one that goes into any evaluation and does not wind up with some kind of monitoring contract even if the purpose is to prove that there is no problem.

I say step lightly because these people may try to con you into rehab solely because you have been a pain management patient. If you feel you may need that kind of assistance, okay then. If not, don’t let them bully you into it by holding your license hostage.

I can’t guarantee that things will go this way. It just seems so deja vu, from 5+ years ago. I guess somethings never change.

[MoseleyMO, RN]

Thank you for the heads up! The place is Gainesville is the only one that’s “in network” for my insurance, so thank God it won’t all be OOP. IPN also gave me a second opinion option. However that would be another $1000, I’m sure and another 4 weeks to get the results. Then again they could also recommend the same multiple day evaluation... they kept you 6 months in Gainesville?!?

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

The intial was Gainesville. I balked at going back there for the multi day. They gave me another option which turned out to be just as bad if not worse. Carbon copy in terms of appalling lack of ethics (in my opinion) but I did not have insurance and cold hard cash was sniffed out....

IPN has their list of people that they use for evaluators and I think Gainesville is at the top followed by a few others. With them I think it’s not so much the place as it is a few specific people that do the evaluations. Some are probably better than others, I guess.

The only way you find out which ones ahhh, bend the truth and which ones might be legit is to actually google them and read reviews. My mistake was not doing that but at the time I thought IPN was there to advocate for me and couldn’t imagine the **** show that I was getting into. that’s one of the many things I have been horribly horribly wrong about in my life.

[voicefamily]

Thanks for sharing the story. It closely reminds mine.

I went through a 2-day multidisciplinary assessment program. Cheerful and positive having completed "entry level IOP for 4 weeks" (my then insurance paid for it) followed by the IPHP involvement for 3 months already (5-year self-will contract). So, needless to say I entered the aforementioned MAP assessment with bright hope. However, It turned that from the director lady/LCPC stand-point, "a russian doctor would be always at high potential for his AUD relapse" if not treated at the facility for medical professionals for 90 days. What a hit. As a result of this recommendation my license was suspended for a minimum of 6 months.

I fought back and forth telling that I am a full compliance with IPHP. Had treatment and so forth. Finally, 6 months later I found a near program for 6 weeks. Entered it wit over a year of documented sobriety via IPHP. Applied for reinstatement, got my license back. "Lost" over 18 months in this and facing that potential employer one after another does not call back after a candid admission why it took so long to get a license back etc.

Employment seems to be "indefinitely" postponed. I feel that a second opinion, or a witness professional during the multiday assessment would be critical to me to preserve things at maximum.

Pray and hope that a second opinion/witness would be helpful to you at max. Paying for it now will potentially save 10-20x more in the future.

My example I paid around 60K due to the fact that someone who wrote an eval did not trust a russian. (not counting potential loss of earned income of 300-400K for 18 months.

One thing is crucial to me. My circumstances and disease brought me to the 12-Step Program. Simple program for a complex person like me.

My desire, my family and my program keep me sober. Not the fact that i went through 2 treatments without relapse in between as well as being monitored by IPHP for almost 2 years.

[catsmeow1972, BSN, RN]

The two things that make me sad about your story is that 1) some individuals’s ‘clinical professional’ opinion of your risk of relapse turned, not on your support system, previous IOP, willingness to enroll in a program etc. but on the fact that you are Russian? And 2) this apparent ‘risk of relapse’ posed by your ethnicity could be overcome only by 3 months in a special doctor’s only rehab. If that ain’t a stinking bunch of life ruining hooey.

The issue I see with the OP trying to get a 2nd opinion is that IPN selects the initial evaluators, where you can go for these multi day things and where you are approved for treatment, if ‘recommended.’ They are all pretty much cut from the same cloth.

Even though SUD isn’t my ‘sin’ so-to-speak, I have been around here long enough (and experienced it myself) to see that all too frequently these programs do more harm than good, at the expense, both financially and emotionally, of good doctors and nurses. No program, no matter how much of their own kool aid they drink can beat recovery into a person.

I am of the opinion that people that get through these programs clean and/or sober do it in spite of them, not because of them.

[voicefamily]

To: CatsMeow1972. Thanks a lot. The irony was that the second "treatment" program i went to and still participate in a 2-year aftercare is now to utilize my "sobriety skills" toward other Russians (med student and doctor who were broken). In a month, with Grace of my Higher Power, i will hit a two-year sobriety mark, where every day was/is confirmed with a soberlink face-control and panel 6 on a random basis and Peth blood test at their "random" discretion (for my expense).

I was doing that for 6 months before the license was suspended, during of actual suspension, and after. Unemployed for 19 months by now. Whose government and society did benefit from that? Russian Federation or US one?

I have been to the US for 25 years, Citizen for 20, my son was born in here. My daughter was 2 and a half when we arrived for my post-doc position.

My daughter (28) and I feel that we're still treated like russianspies. ?