Vandalia Health is adding free public-access naloxone at Mon Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in Weston, giving residents a private way to obtain the opioid-overdose reversal medication at the hospital entrance.
The box contains naloxone kits and educational instructions. Patients, visitors, hospital employees and other community members may take a kit without speaking with a staff member, providing personal information or explaining their need. Vandalia Health says people may take more than one kit when necessary.
The hospital will monitor the supply and restock the box. The no-questions-asked setup is intended to remove cost, privacy and access barriers for people who may encounter an overdose at home, at work or elsewhere in the community.
Naloxone can temporarily reverse an opioid overdose. Anyone responding to a suspected overdose should follow the kit instructions and call emergency services because the person still needs medical care after naloxone is given.
Vandalia Health says the medication was obtained through grant support coordinated with Lindsay Acree at the University of Charleston, pharmaceutical companies and opioid-settlement funding. The CAMC Foundation supplied the public-access boxes. Read Vandalia Health's complete announcement.