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The incident command system kicked in at Brigham and Women’s Hospital about a week ago. A large team of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses began assembling every morning to confront an emerging crisis with the potential to severely undermine care for patients. The challenge was different than it was during the Boston Marathon bombing, another event that triggered the command response. This one wasn’t rushing toward caregivers as fast. But it was similarly daunting and logistically demanding: Amid a nationwide crisis caused by too-easy access to medical painkillers, hospitals are now struggling to find enough of that same class of drugs to keep their patients’ pain controlled. (Ross, 3/15)

The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to consider 25 bills aimed at combating the opioid crisis during a two-day legislative hearing next week. The panel is working to hammer out a series of bipartisan bills with the goal of getting legislation to the House floor by Memorial Day. (Roubein, 3/14)

Medical providers say new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations urging emergency departments to connect opioid overdose patients with medication-assisted treatment ignores the possibility that this may not be the best place to begin the treatment. The CDC, in a report that showed a 30 percent increase in opioid overdoses that resulted in emergency room visits between July 2016 and September 2017, proposed linking patients with treatment and services in the community, and perhaps starting medication-assisted treatment in the emergency department. But providers say that starting such treatment in emergency departments is not ideal if they can’t connect patients with a longer-term provider in their community. (McIntire, 3/14)

Mady Ohlman was 22 on the evening some years ago when she stood in a friend's bathroom looking down at the sink. "I had set up a bunch of needles filled with heroin because I wanted to just do them back-to-back-to-back," Ohlman recalls. She doesn't remember how many she injected before collapsing, or how long she lay drugged-out on the floor. "But I remember being pissed because I could still get up, you know?" (Bebinger, 3/15)

Overdose deaths in Native American communities have skyrocketed in the time the opioid epidemic has swept the U.S. and federal officials are looking for solutions. Native Americans and Alaska Natives saw a fivefold increase in overdose deaths between 1999 and 2015, Dr. Michael Toedt told the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Wednesday. (3/14)

A new study from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center shows that newborns who require treatment for opioid withdrawal are at higher risk than others for delayed language, cognitive and motor skills. Cincinnati Children's this week released the study of 87 children who have been treated at its long-term Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Clinic. (DeMio, 3/13)

South Dakota on Wednesday sued three major drugmakers, accusing them of deceptively marketing prescription opioids and contributing to a nationwide epidemic. Marty Jackley, the state's attorney general, announced civil claims against Purdue Pharma LP, a unit of Endo International Plc and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen unit. (Stempel, 3/14)

The office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has served subpoenas on two opioid distributors as part of a multi-state investigation into their marketing and sales practices. The subpoenas seek company records and internal communications relating to suspicious drug orders or cases in which opioids may have been improperly diverted by customers. (3/15)

Milwaukee County sued several pharmaceutical drug-makers and distributors Wednesday in federal district court in Milwaukee for creating a public nuisance and violating federal racketeering laws while contributing to a local opioid epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths. (Behm, 3/14)

Patients on painkillers, often recovering from surgery, quietly suffer respiratory failure while asleep. Frank Overdyk, an anesthesiologist from South Carolina and national patient safety expert, said an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 Americans die that way every year. (Marso, 3/15)

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday rolled out what it calls an “opioid toolkit” that consists of online courses, videos and other material that employers can use to learn more about the crisis and what steps they can take to address them. ...Half of Ohio businesses say they have been hurt by substance misuse, whether it is employees missing work, a drop in productivity or not being able to find workers to fill openings. (Williams, 3/14)