The sixth article in a series on battling opioid addition for the Boston Globe (12/9, Freyer) addresses recent emergency room improvements in helping addicted patients. For decades, according to the piece, “programs for people with addiction have developed largely outside the medical system.” But because of pressure from physicians like Dr. Alister Martin at the Massachusetts General Hospital, a new state law requires emergency departments to begin addiction treatment on site, “a mandate that calls on hospitals to meet the challenge of a crisis claiming four or five lives each day in Massachusetts.”
Related Links:
— “Emergency rooms once offered little for drug users. That’s starting to change, “Felice J. Freyer, The Boston Globe, December 09, 2018.