Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center now carries naloxone, a medication used to temporarily reverse opioid overdose.
 
Novant Health “fully supports the surgeon general’s recommendation that families and friends of those at risk for overdose help combat the opioid epidemic by carrying naloxone,” according to a Novant Health news release.
 
“Naloxone is a life-saving tool that’s underutilized due to lack of information at the community level,” said Tom Zweng, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Novant Health, in the release.
 
All Novant Health community pharmacies are equipped to provide naloxone to patients without a prescription in accordance with standing orders issued by the states of North Carolina and Virginia.
 
“We want the communities we serve to know that naloxone, sometimes referred to by the brand name Narcan, is available to patients across the Novant Health footprint,” Bridget Bridgman, director of medication safety at Novant Health and the leader of Novant Health’s opioid stewardship initiative, said in the release.