It’s a simple concept, but it aims to have an impact on the community’s complex struggle with drugs like fentanyl: Put a vending machine with the opioid-overdose reversal medicine naloxone in a busy, central location, where folks can get it for free.
Denver Health, the state’s flagship safety net hospital, did just that Monday morning, holding a ribbon cutting and unveiling of its first naloxone vending machine, affectionately called VENDY.
The blue machine is located in the middle of the Denver Health campus, next to a historic red brick and sandstone building south of the entrance to its emergency department on Bannock Street.
The hospital’s Outpatient Behavioral Health Services is behind the launch of the machine. Its leaders say it will make a difference.
“This is so much more than just a vending machine, more than a soda, more than a snack. This is lifesaving medication and life-affirming self-care available completely for free 24/7,” said Dr. Sarah Christensen, the hospital’s medical director of Outpatient Substance Use Disorder Treatment.
“You don't need insurance or a prescription. You don't need to engage with the health care system if you're not ready and share your deepest, darkest secrets with everyone, you simply show up, push a few buttons, and be ready to save a life,” Christensen said. “If only everything in health care could be so simple.”
