Emergency care. Harm reduction. Lives saved.
The Virginia Naloxone Project belongs in every emergency department.
Emergency departments are often the first point of care after an opioid overdose — and one of the most important opportunities to prevent the next one. The Virginia Naloxone Project helps hospitals put naloxone directly into the hands of patients before they leave the ED.
Learn about the project
Questions?
Contact Ryan Tsipis at ryan@naloxoneproject.com .
Contact Ryan Tsipis at ryan@naloxoneproject.com .
More than a life-saving medication, naloxone represents an opportunity to connect with patients, communicate that their lives matter, and provide a tangible tool that can help keep them safe and alive.
A practical intervention at a critical moment
Patients treated in the emergency department after a nonfatal opioid overdose face an elevated risk of death in the months that follow. The Virginia Naloxone Project addresses that risk by helping ED teams provide free naloxone kits, basic education and recovery resource information at discharge.
The goal is simple: make sure patients at risk of overdose leave the emergency department with naloxone in hand — not just a prescription they may never fill.
Why EDs matter
Emergency physicians and nurses meet patients during moments of immediate risk, vulnerability and potential openness to support. That makes the ED a powerful place for life-saving intervention.
What patients get
Naloxone kits include the medication, basic instructions and referral information for recovery services, supported by a brief explanation from a clinician.
Why it works
Direct distribution removes barriers such as cost, transportation and pharmacy access while signaling compassion and reducing stigma around substance use disorder.
Here's how the Naloxone Project works in your ED
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Identify patients at risk.
Emergency clinicians use their judgment to determine who may benefit from a naloxone kit. -
Provide naloxone before discharge.
The kit is given directly to the patient, removing the need to fill a prescription later. -
Offer brief education.
A nurse or physician explains how to use naloxone and why it matters. -
Connect patients to next steps.
Kits include referral information and create an opportunity for a short, meaningful conversation about recovery resources.
The need is larger than overdose visits alone
A 2026 study in JACEP Open argues that emergency departments should look beyond patients treated for opioid overdose alone when estimating the need for naloxone distribution. Using ED discharge data, researchers found a much broader group of patients at risk who could benefit from take-home naloxone.
3,870,000
Researchers estimated that U.S. emergency departments saw at least 3.87 million visits by patients at risk of opioid overdose.
226,000
By comparison, visits specifically for opioid overdose treatment represented a much smaller estimate of naloxone need.
3%
The study estimates that about 3% of all ED visits involved patients who were at risk of overdose.
Here's where to find the Naloxone Project at work in Virginia's emergency departments
For Virginia emergency physicians
The Virginia Naloxone Project reflects what emergency medicine does every day: meet patients where they are, respond to immediate danger and create a path toward survival. For hospitals and ED teams, participation is a concrete way to reduce overdose deaths, support patients with substance use disorder and strengthen compassionate, stigma-free care.
Get the toolkit. The Naloxone Project's Hospital & Emergency Department Implementation Toolkit includes sample policies, workflow guides, stakeholder presentations, dispensing protocols, staff training materials and patient education resources to help hospitals successfully implement take-home naloxone programs. Download it here.