At home Rx disposal kit could help in opioid crisis
LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) - Many people leave the hospital after surgery with a prescription for opioids to manage the pain.
Now there's a new pilot program to help those patients dispose of their unused opioids safely.
Centra partnered with Horizon to provide DisposeRX packets to patients in the surgery center and new moms who get a c-section and leave the hospital with an opioid prescription.
It's really pretty easy to use -- you just add the powder and water to your unused prescription... and it eradicates the medications. Then you can safely toss what's left over.
Shannon Miles with Centra said just leaving those prescriptions in your home can lead to intentional... or even unintentional over dose.
"So say you are having pain in your back and you go get your grandmother's opioid medication she had left over from her surgery," Miles explained. "You're not sure of the dose, your opioid naive and you take a 10 or 15 gram opioid. You could reduce your respiration and that could lead to an overdose."
Miles said there are studies that show the amount of opioids that are unused after surgery and not properly disposed of ranges anywhere from 60-90 percent.
This 3 month pilot program is the only one going on in Virginia right now. It's paid for by a grant that Horizon got from State Opioid Response prevention dollars
Miles said pharmaceutical companies are providing these packets for free -- and they have already applied for a grant with one company so they can continue to get more once the pilot program is over. That way it won't be costly to the hospital system -- and benefit the community.
