Minnesota Provider's Opioid Abuse Program Has Washington Interested
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A health care provider in Little Falls says it's been successful at reducing the number of people abusing opioids, and it hopes their program can be done nationally.
On Tuesday morning, representatives of CHI St. Gabriel's Health flew to Washington to tell lawmakers how they helped 324 patients taper off controlled substances completely.
"We really looked at this as kind of a two-prong thing," said Dr. Kurt Devine. "I think one part of it is decreasing pills out of our clinic and our hospital, and I think that was the biggest part of our program to start with...Later on, it also became taking care of some of the people who were already addicted."
Minnesota's U.S. Sen. Al Franken and U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan invited the representatives from CHI St. Gabriel's Health to testify about their success.