Aug 24, 2018 Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Barnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center Retail Pharmacies Offers Safe Rx® Prescription Bottles

Livingston, New Jersey, August 23, 2018 – To further our commitment to addressing the crisis of substance abuse, Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Barnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center, RWJBarnabas Health facilities, are partnering with Safe Rx® to offer locking prescription bottles to consumers for opioid and other habit-forming medications at its retail pharmacy. The locking vials are available at no additional cost to the customer upon request for qualifying prescriptions.

Safe Rx® Locking Prescription Vials (LPVsTM) are prescription bottles with bike-lock like caps that are both certified child-resistant and certified senior-friendly. The Safe Rx® bottles are locked utilizing a four-digit PIN code.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), approximately 21.5 million Americans, ages 12 and older, are classified with a substance use disorder annually. It is reported that eighty percent of heroin users start with a prescription opioid and 90 percent of abusers start in their teen years, with the majority taking drugs from a family medicine cabinet. The Safe Rx® bottles help prevent medications from being accidentally ingested and/or taken by someone other than the prescribed user.

“The ongoing opioid crisis is one that must be proactively addressed from multiple angles and RWJBarnabas Health continues to shine a light on the growing public health issue of opioid addiction, in terms of education, awareness, prevention and recovery,” said Robert T. Adamson, PharmD, FASHP, Chief Pharmacy Officer, RWJBarnabas Health. “Our partnership with Safe Rx® allows us to educate patients and community members on the dangers of certain medications while also preventing dangerous and highly-addictive prescription pills from falling into the wrong hands.”

The Safe Rx® program is part of the RWJBarnabas Health system’s larger opioid prevention and recovery initiative set forth by the Tackling Addiction Task Force. The Task Force takes a proactive, multi-disciplinary approach to combating substance use disorder. With a focus on education, prevention, treatment and recovery, the RWJBarnabas Health Tackling Addiction Task Force is actively working to change the perception of substance use disorder and the way we prevent, diagnose and treat the disease throughout our hospitals, health facilities and communities.

For further information, please stop in at the Retail Pharmacy at Saint Barnabas Medical Center and Barnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center and ask a pharmacy representative. This program has been rolled out to several other retail pharmacies in the RWJBarnabas Health system including those at: Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, Jersey City Medical Center, Clara Maass Medical Center in Bellville and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.

CONTACT: Sally Malech
973-322-5441
Sally.Malech@rwjbh.org