Upstate Medical outpatient pharmacy offers locking prescription bottles

SYRACUSE — It’s a new program that seeks to “help combat the opioid epidemic and unintentional overdose by children and teens.”

The Upstate Medical University outpatient pharmacy on Dec. 19 started using a new system to provide locking prescription bottles for controlled medications ordered for patients at discharge.

The pharmacy debuted the bottles from Safe RX for pediatric patients who are discharged with a controlled substance. The Safe RX vial is a locking pill bottle that has a unique security code that will be programmed prior to dispensing for each patient, Upstate Medical said.

Safe RX is a company that says it was started by a practicing physician to provide a “simple, cost-effective solution” to the problem of unauthorized access to prescription opioids. 

In its announcement, Upstate Medical noted that more than 11 million Americans used or misused opioids in the last year and patients with a history of using opioid pain relievers for non-medical reasons “have a higher rate of heroin use.” Drug overdose or poisoning is also one of the leading causes of unintentional death in children and adolescents.

“With the opioid epidemic continuing to be a problem within our community and the chance of accidental overdose high for these therapies, the pharmacy is taking a proactive approach to provide for a safer delivery system,” Eric Balotin, Upstate Medical’s director of retail/specialty pharmacy, said. “It is the right thing to do for our community.”

The locking vials have a small set of numerical dials at the top that can be pre-programmed with a code. If patients have multiple prescriptions, they can all have the same code. This is intended to prevent unintentional overdose by young children, as well as to prevent teenagers or adults from taking patients’ pills.

Upstate Medical University’s outpatient pharmacy is managing the program, and the Discharge Pharmacy Transition Team is providing patient and family education.