CAMDEN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Cooper University Hospital paramedics are the first in the nation to carry an injectable form of a drug that treats opioid overdose.<\/p>\n
Cooper EMS was the first in the country to have the oral form of the life-saving medication on its Mobile Intensive Care Unit back in 2019. Now, having the injectable form is a game-changer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt comes in a weekly and a monthly form, and it\u2019s just a little subcutaneous injection that forms a crystal,\u201d explained Dr. Gerard Carroll, Cooper EMS medical director. \u201cOnce that\u2019s in place, you have a steady dose of this medication to help with your cravings, help with withdrawal, and help you not use illicit opiates.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the difference \u2014 people who receive the buprenorphine injection will now have the space for follow-up care and recovery services. Carroll said many patients who received the life-saving oral version of bupe fall through the cracks before getting treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we found at the time was that a significant portion of those patients were only interacting with EMS and they weren\u2019t going to the hospital,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if they were going to the hospital, they were leaving before they could be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
This expanded treatment lowers the barrier to getting opioid-addicted patients into recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just another window where we can take someone who\u2019s very unstable in their drug use, make them feel better in the emergency, and then give them a window for which to follow up where they\u2019re not sick,\u201d added Carroll.<\/p>\n
Officials at Cooper hope this campaign becomes a national model for saving lives and intervention.<\/p>\n
\n Featured Image Photo Credit: Cooper University Hospital\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAMDEN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 Cooper University Hospital paramedics are the first in the nation to carry an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-140155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}