“Discharging opioid or heroin overdose patients from the emergency department (ED) without connecting them to treatment options “should be considered malpractice,” according to the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
Research has shown that one in 10 people who come to an ED because of an opioid or heroin overdose die within a year, said Nora Volkow, MD, Wednesday at the National Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta.
“We cannot in any consciousness … any one of us, release that patient without access to treatment. That patient will overdose,” she said. “And that should not be happening.”
Volkow also lobbied to increase access to medication-assisted treatment in jails and prisons, adding that this approach has been tested in Rhode Island.”
Read more at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/opioids/72164
Source: MedpageToday.com – April 5, 2018
