Indiana University Health Bloomington is working to prescribe fewer opioids to patients – even in the hospital's emergency room.
During a community meeting Tuesday night, clinical pharmacist Brian McCrate pointed to the overwhelming evidence linking opioid prescriptions to overdose deaths.
He encouraged everyone to learn more about the overdose reversal drug Naloxone:
"What resources do we have in our community especially with recent legislation that lead to people being able to use it, not only police officers, medical personnel, but just lay people," McCrate says. "So, this presentation really digs into this resource, what it is and how people can get their hands on it."
The number of opioid related visits to Indiana emergency rooms shot up 50 percent between 2009 and 2014.