Hospitals give out doses of antidote to fight opioid crisis
The project already has 47 hospitals committed to dispensing the overdose antidote to at-risk patients as they are discharged from the emergency department. Author: Associated Press Updated: 9:54 AM CDT May 8, 2021
When doctors write a prescription for the life-saving antidote to an opioid overdose, patients only bother to fill them about 5% of the time.
But what if hospital physicians simply handed a vial of naloxone to the patients they worry are most likely to die, particularly those who were just rushed to the emergency room after overdosing on fentanyl, prescription opioids or heroin?