City of Gillette looks at helping hospital resupply opioid disposal bags

GILLETTE (WNE)  — The city of Gillette will look to help cover the cost of opioid disposal bags for the Campbell County Health emergency department to provide to patients with their drug prescriptions.
Tuesday night, Dr. Scott Diering, an emergency medicine physician with CCH, approached the city council to ask for help replenishing the emergency department supply of opioid disposal bags given to patients with each drug prescription.
The bags are for patients to safely get rid of their unused medications. Patients put the pills in the bag, fill it with water, shake it up and it neutralizes the pills.
The emergency department received two state grants, for $1,000 each, to pay for the bags through the past year or so that the department has packaged the bags with patient prescriptions, Diering said.
“I didn’t feel comfortable tapping into it a third time,” he said of the state grant.
City Administrator Hyun Kim said that the cost is in the neighborhood of “hundreds of dollars” and that the city staff would prepare a budget amendment for the cost to bring before the city council.
Councilman Tim Carsrud asked Diering if he knew how often the bags were used by patients, compared to how often patients discard opioids without using the bags. 
Diering said he did not know, but there are ways the use of the bags could potentially be tracked going forward.
“This to me is a very simple solution,” Diering said. “Are we going to stop opiate deaths all together? No. I’m realistic. Every little bit counts.”
 
This story was published on Oct. 13, 2022.