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Hospital: More addicts shooting up inside medical centers

Hospital Safety Insider, April 14, 2016

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The growing problem of opioid abuse has created a security concern within the walls of the country's hospitals. According to a report from WCVB-TV in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has been ramping up efforts to fight the opioid crisis for months, but now MGH is tackling drug abuse inside its own walls.

The report says hospital staff are reporting heroin users shooting up in bathrooms, walkways, and parking garages there to more quickly get medical help if they overdose. One tactic even includes tying bathroom emergency pull cords to themselves, so an alarm will sound if they collapse.

Although MGH said drug abuse numbers are low on its premises, staff have noticed an increase in the last 18 months, the report says, and the hospital is now equipping security guards with the overdose-reversing drug Narcan.

According to the report, Boston Medical Center is the only other facility in the area that follows this protocol, which took effect last summer.

Read more here.

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