Title: Emergency Treatment for Opioid Overdose

Summary: Designates act as "Emergency Treatment & Recovery Act"; authorizes health care practitioners to prescribe opioid antagonist to patient or caregiver under certain conditions; authorizes storage, possession, & emergency administration of opioid antagonist by patient or caregiver & certain emergency responders; provides immunity from liability.

Full Text:
An act relating to emergency treatment for opioid overdose; providing a short title; creating s. 381.887, F.S.; providing definitions; providing purpose; authorizing a health care practitioner to prescribe an opioid antagonist to a patient or caregiver under certain conditions; authorizing storage, possession, and emergency administration of an opioid antagonist by such patient or caregiver and certain emergency respo nders; providing immunity from liability; providing an effective date. Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1. This act may be cited as the "Emergency Treatment and Recovery Act." Section 2. Section 381.887, Flori da Statutes, is created to read: 381.887 Emergency treatment for opioid overdose.-(1) As used in this section, the term: (a) "Administer" or "administration" means to introduce an opioid antagonist into the body of a person, using a formulation and route of administration approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration. (b) "Authorized health care practitioner" means a licensed practitioner authorized by the laws of the state to prescribe HB 2015 drugs. (c) "Caregiver" means a family member, friend, or other person in a position to assist a person at risk of experiencing an opioid overdose. (d) "Opioid antagonist" means a drug that blocks the effects of exogenously administered opioids. (e) "Patient" means a person at risk of experiencing a nopioid overdose. (2) The purpose of this section is to provide for the prescription of an opioid antagonist to patients and caregivers and to encourage the administration of such formulation and route of administration as approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for emergency treatment of known or suspected opioid overdoses when a physician is not immediately available. (3) An authorized health care practitioner may prescribe an opioid antagonist to a patient or caregiver for use in accordance with this section, and pharmacists may dispense an opioid antagonist pursuant to a prescription issued in the name of the patient or caregiver, appropriately labeled with instructions for use. The patient or caregiver is authorized to store and possess approved opioid antagonists and, in an emergency situation when a physician is not immediately available, administer the opioid antagonist to a person believed in good faith to be experiencing an opioid overdose, regardless of whether that person has a prescription for an opioid HB 2015 antagonist. (4) Emergency responders, including law enforcement officers and emergency medical technicians, are authorized to possess, store, and administer approved opioid antagonists as clinically indicated. (5) A pers on, including an authorized health care practitioner, a dispensing health care practitioner, or a pharmacist, who possesses, administers, prescribes, dispenses, or stores an approved opioid antagonist in compliance with this section is afforded the civil liability immunity protections provided under s. 768.13. Section 3. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.