Knoxville Drug Abuse Treatment in Hospital Regulated

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - July 12, 2018 - PRLog -- The University of Tennessee Medical Center (UTMC) has implemented regulations on patients that come into their facility for drug abuse treatment services in Knox County.

Over the last year, the UTMC board of governors began to toughen their rules for helping patients. Patients are now required to go through security searches and give up their belongings.

UTMC began putting up the regulations in small part because of a similar program that began at the Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Washington a few years ago.

Dr. Jerry Epps, the chief medical officer, stated that the plan aimed to boost safety. "We put in place a plan of care that specifically addressed patient safety as well as team member safety for patients that were hospitalized with drug-associated infections. And what we had discovered was an alarmingly increasing risk of workplace violence in regards to patients who are hospitalized here and their approach towards our nurses."

He stated that patients were carrying substances into the hospital and security had to take away numerous amounts of contraband.

"We felt like we had to do something to help support them (the nurses) but more importantly to provide safety toward this patient population because we realized they were so deep in the throes of their addiction that they were unable to rationalize they were putting themselves and team members at risk," said Epps.

https://www.drugaddictionnow.com/2018/07/12/knoxville-dru...