PATERSON, NJ – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker and Bob Menendez (both D-NJ) and Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (NJ-09) were joined at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson by health professionals, advocates, and individuals impacted by the opioid epidemic to outline bipartisan, bicameral legislation the lawmakers introduced to help hospitals in the fight against opioid addiction. Language from the bill is included in a legislative package scheduled for committee markup in the Senate this Tuesday.

The Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) in the Emergency Department Act, the introduction of which Booker led last month, would establish a national demonstration program, based on the successful program implemented at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in 2016, to test alternative pain management protocols to limit use of opioids in emergency departments nationwide.  The legislation would provide grant funding to build these programs. Following the completion of the program, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will submit a report to Congress on the results of the program and issue recommendations for broader implementation.

“The opioid crisis in our country is staggering and epic in its evil.  As a result, we are seeing families and communities destroyed,” Senator Booker said at today’s event. “Right here in New Jersey, we know that the opioid epidemic does not discriminate against Democrats or Republicans, or suburban or urban areas. The work being done here at St. Joseph’s Medical Center is innovative, it is inspiring, and it is shining light against the darkness.”

Video of Senator Booker’s remarks can be found here

“The ALTO program here at St. Joe’s is at the forefront of innovative thinking and new approaches to treating pain—to fighting opioid addiction,” said Senator Menendez.  “This creative thinking and willingness to approach health care delivery in new ways is critical to moving our health care system forward, tackling the scourge of addiction, and saving lives.  We want to see every hospital and provider across New Jersey and across this nation follow St. Joe’s lead, and our bill provides the necessary federal resources to help make it possible.”

“I believe this will be a critical step in fighting the opioid scourge that is devastating communities across my district and the nation,” said Rep. Pascrell. “Pioneered at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in my hometown Paterson, New Jersey, their approach has shown dramatic results in keeping unnecessary opioids out of patients’ hands. Our legislation would take the St. Joe’s ALTO model nationwide, providing emergency rooms across the country with a blueprint for preventing countless overdoses from happening in the first place.”

“Thousands of New Jersey patients and families have benefited from our Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO®) program since it launched in January 2016,” said Kevin J. Slavin, President and CEO, St. Joseph’s Health. “St. Joseph’s is proud to lead the way in providing a tangible solution to address the opioid epidemic here in New Jersey – and now across the country with this proposed legislation.”

After years of ravaging communities across America, the opioid epidemic is showing no signs of abating. Over 100 people die each day from opioid overdose. Forty percent of these deaths involved a prescription opioid. More than 200 million opioid prescriptions are written in the United States each year. As a first line of defense against the opioid epidemic, emergency rooms are well positioned to be laboratories of new innovations and procedures to combat the crisis. At the same time, because of the short-term nature of the care they provide, emergency rooms are often highly susceptible to doctor-shopping.

Eager to try fresh approaches to address this epidemic, emergency departments in several states have developed effective programs that have drastically reduced the use of opioids. St. Joseph’s Medical Center created the ALTO program in 2016, which decreased emergency department opioid prescriptions by 82 percent in its first two years alone. The Colorado Hospital Association saw similar success with its program, decreasing opioid usage by 36 percent in six months.

Booker, Menendez, and Pascrell joined hospital officials for the announcement of St. Joseph’s ALTO program, as well as a roundtable discussion with health professionals and advocates to discuss ways to combat the nation’s opioid epidemic.

Last July, Booker convened a roundtable discussion in Ocean County with Brick Township Mayor John Ducey, Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph Coronato, health professionals, advocates and New Jerseyans to discuss the heroin and opioid addiction crisis in New Jersey and how the Affordable Care Act has helped expand treatment for individuals battling addiction across our nation.  Following that discussion, Booker was successful in advocating for the expansion of the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA), a federal drug prevention program, to include Ocean County and assist efforts to battle the opioid epidemic.

A report issued last month by the Centers for Disease Control found that emergency room visits stemming from opioid overdoses rose approximately 30 percent between July 2016 and September 2017. The report noted that abuse is affecting all age groups and in all geographic regions in the nation, with the acting head of the CDC saying the epidemic is getting ‘worse.’

This bill is endorsed by the American College of Emergency Physicians, St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center, America’s Essential Hospitals, the New Jersey Hospital Association, Colorado Hospital Association, and American Hospital Association.

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