Ottumwa Regional Health Center Installs Drug Take Back Receptacle

Ottumwa, IA (Oct. 20, 2023) – Ottumwa Regional Health Center (ORHC) today announced its participation as a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) registered consumer drug take-back site. A secure, DEA-compliant receptacle has been placed in the hospital’s outpatient admitting lobby at 1001 Pennsylvania Ave. in Ottumwa.

“We are so pleased to offer this important resource to the Ottumwa community,” said ORHC’s chief executive officer, William Kiefer.  “Safe, secure and easily accessible medication disposal is an important component of our ongoing efforts to combat drug-misuse and the opioid epidemic that continues to plague our community and our nation.  It’s an important part of our mission of making communities healthier.”

The easy-to-access take-back receptacle is available 24-hours a day, 365 days a year to place unused, unwanted and expired medications, both prescription or over-the-counter medications, including medication inhalers.  The receptacle is conveniently located in ORHC’s outpatient admitting area, adjacent to the emergency department waiting room.

The take back receptacle installation marks the approach the DEA’s “National Prescription Drug Take Back Day” on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023. The receptacle is available for easy and safe 24-hour, 365-day use, with no questions asked. OHRH staff will answer any questions or provide assistance, if necessary.

“As the Ottumwa community’s hospital, it’s important for us to take a lead position for the safe handling of all medications, said ORHC’s chief nursing officer, Bryan Harkness. “Specifically, we aim to help Ottumwans dispose of unnecessary opioids, preventing them from falling into the wrong hands and causing harm.”

Harness adds that it is important never to throw medications in the trash or flush them down the toilet. Discarded medications can be easily retrieved and abused or illegally sold, and medicines flushed down the toilet can contaminate the community water supply.

Through the DEA drug take back program, medications placed in the take-back receptacle are incinerated, which is the safest way to destroy medications without harming the environment.

###

About Ottumwa Regional Health Center

For more than 125 years, Ottumwa Regional Health Center has served the community of Ottumwa, Wapello County and the citizens of Southeast Iowa. We are a regional health center providing a wide range of health services, including emergency medicine, critical care services, medical/surgical, acute rehabilitation, obstetrics, and pediatrics, as well as specialty services such as cardiac catheterization, diagnostic and therapeutic radiological services, wound care, pain clinic, sleep lab, pathology, and more. ORHC’s mission is making communities healthier and it is dedicated to being a place where people choose to come for healthcare, physicians want to practice, and employees want to work.