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Sentara joins Virginia Naloxone Project to prevent opioid overdose deaths
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital provides free naloxone to high-risk patients
The Sentara Norfolk General Hospital emergency department (ED) has joined the Virginia Naloxone Project to help avoid deaths from opioid overdose. Naloxone nasal spray, widely known as Narcan, is being dispensed free-of-charge to discharged patients who are at high risk for overdose as part of a pilot program.
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital’s ED treats as many as 20 patients per week for opioid overdose or related issues. Not all of them have opioid use disorder. Some might be cancer or post-surgery patients prescribed opioids for pain who overdose inadvertently. Most are treated in the field by first responders and come to the ED to be stabilized. Most survive to be discharged, but patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at high risk of another overdose.
“Providing naloxone to this population has the potential to save lives,” said Marcus Kaplan, a Sentara clinical pharmacy specialist who works in the ED and championed joining the Virginia Naloxone Project.
“We could send patients home with a prescription for naloxone or recommend that they purchase it over the counter at a pharmacy, but this is not a reliable solution. Ensuring that they have this medication in hand is the best way to increase their chances of surviving an overdose,” Kaplan added.
Naloxone retails for $40 or more and it can be cost-prohibitive to many patients.
The Virginia Naloxone Project is supported by state legislation and grant funding from the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority to hospitals that provide naloxone free-of-charge to at-risk patients. The authority is supported by settlement funds from lawsuits filed by multiple states against opioid distributors.
“We use naloxone to prevent death,” said Catherine Floroff, director of pharmacy at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. “Death can happen in minutes with an opioid overdose, and naloxone will prevent that.”
After the pilot, Sentara expects to expand the Naloxone Project to 16 hospital-based and free-standing EDs in Virginia.
Survivors have options to seek treatment. Sentara’s SOBR program (Sentara Opioid Bridge to Recovery) will connect ED patients with community-based treatment programs and ED physicians will discuss medications to help patients see an outpatient provider within 48 hours of discharge.
Sentara provides intensive outpatient therapy and partial hospitalization programs through its Behavioral Health division, which help patients remain in their communities and continue working while attending daily therapy sessions.
The Virginia Naloxone Project also includes VCU Health in Richmond, Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, the Virginia Society of Health System Pharmacists, the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, the Virginia Society for Addiction Medicine, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians, and the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA). The state program is modeled after the nationwide The Naloxone Project.
Sentara Norfolk General Hospital’s ED treats as many as 20 patients per week for opioid overdose or related issues. Not all of them have opioid use disorder. Some might be cancer or post-surgery patients prescribed opioids for pain who overdose inadvertently. Most are treated in the field by first responders and come to the ED to be stabilized. Most survive to be discharged, but patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at high risk of another overdose.
“Providing naloxone to this population has the potential to save lives,” said Marcus Kaplan, a Sentara clinical pharmacy specialist who works in the ED and championed joining the Virginia Naloxone Project.
“We could send patients home with a prescription for naloxone or recommend that they purchase it over the counter at a pharmacy, but this is not a reliable solution. Ensuring that they have this medication in hand is the best way to increase their chances of surviving an overdose,” Kaplan added.
Naloxone retails for $40 or more and it can be cost-prohibitive to many patients.
The Virginia Naloxone Project is supported by state legislation and grant funding from the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority to hospitals that provide naloxone free-of-charge to at-risk patients. The authority is supported by settlement funds from lawsuits filed by multiple states against opioid distributors.
“We use naloxone to prevent death,” said Catherine Floroff, director of pharmacy at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. “Death can happen in minutes with an opioid overdose, and naloxone will prevent that.”
After the pilot, Sentara expects to expand the Naloxone Project to 16 hospital-based and free-standing EDs in Virginia.
Survivors have options to seek treatment. Sentara’s SOBR program (Sentara Opioid Bridge to Recovery) will connect ED patients with community-based treatment programs and ED physicians will discuss medications to help patients see an outpatient provider within 48 hours of discharge.
Sentara provides intensive outpatient therapy and partial hospitalization programs through its Behavioral Health division, which help patients remain in their communities and continue working while attending daily therapy sessions.
The Virginia Naloxone Project also includes VCU Health in Richmond, Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, the Virginia Society of Health System Pharmacists, the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, the Virginia Society for Addiction Medicine, the Virginia College of Emergency Physicians, and the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA). The state program is modeled after the nationwide The Naloxone Project.
By: Dale Gauding