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Patients treated for an opioid overdose in two Oak Lawn hospitals are now leaving these facilities with medications that could save them the next time they overdose.
Advocate Christ Medical Centers and Advocate Children's Hospital have recently started sending naloxone home to patients who go to their emergency rooms with an opioid overdose or opioid addiction, and several other local hospitals are considering similar measures. Naloxone is used to block the effects of opioids during overdoses.
This is the latest initiative of the Chicago area hospitals to combat a wave of opioid deaths, including heroin and certain types of prescription pain medications. In Illinois, 2,110 people died of an opioid overdose last year, according to preliminary data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
The kits at Advocate hospitals, provided free of charge by patients and provided by the Chicago Recovery Alliance, include medications, syringes, dosing instructions and a communication card with more resources. Before receiving the kits, patients and their family members in the hospital should watch a short video on how to dispense medications and what to do next.
Naloxone works by reversing depression of the central nervous system and the respiratory system caused by opioids. The drug also comes in a nasal spray version, but that is usually more expensive than the injectable version, said Dr. Diana Bottari, leader of the opioid working group Advocate Health Care and a pediatric pain management physician .
The advocate hopes to expand the program to more of his hospitals, depending on how it will unfold in the first two months. The lawyer decided to start with the Christ Medical Center and its children's hospital, as these hospitals have two of the busiest emergency departments in the system, Bottari said.
Hospitals are trying to involve patients in treatment programs, but that can take time, Bottari said. Some doctors have also prescribed these patients naloxone, but she said that these prescriptions were often not met.
"We are able to provide this information on hand as they walk through the door," Bottari said. "It's an ability to give them one more day, one more chance."
Advocate hospitals are believed to be the first in the region to send home life-saving medicines to emergency room patients, although other hospitals are also taking steps to prevent overdoses.
The western suburbs, Edward-Elmhurst Health, recently began recommending its doctors to prescribe naloxone to patients who have been prescribed certain doses of opioid analgesics.
Edward-Elmhurst plans to provide naloxone kits in his emergency department soon, spokesman Keith Hartenberger said. The University of Chicago Medicine is also developing a program to send patients home with naloxone, according to Dr. P. Quincy Moore, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the university's Pritzker School of Medicine.
At the same time, Cook County's health and hospital system has distributed more than 2,000 naloxone kits to inmates on its release from the Cook County Prison system since 2016, the spokesman said. word of the hospital system, Caitlin Polochak.
Illinois also allows pharmacists and naloxone training programs across the state to provide the drug without a prescription.
Steven Stefani, whose twin brother died of an opioid overdose in 2015, applauded Advate's efforts.
His brother, Matt Stefani, received naloxone from first responders during a previous overdose. He lived about six months after that, Steven Stefani said. He was 22 when he died.
"Naloxone may be what gives them all that extra time for emergency responders," said Stefani of Willowbrook.
Twitter @lschencker
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