Naloxone has saved thousands of lives. But can patients be safely discharged from the Emergency Department (ED) just an hour after they receive the medication that curtails drug overdoses?
According to the St. Paul’s Early Discharge Rule developed in 2000, that’s how long providers should observe patients after naloxone treatment, so long as their vital signs meet specific criteria and they are ambulatory.
But the rule was never externally validated or assessed in light of the changes that have occurred in recent years with opioid use disorder.
