Why do so many doctors and nurses avoid treating patients with addiction?

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Consider This from NPR

Episode: "Why do so many doctors and nurses avoid treating patients with addiction?"

Date: August 6, 2026
Host: Ilsa Chang
Reporter: Brian Mann

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Overview

In this episode, NPR examines the pervasive reluctance among healthcare professionals—doctors, nurses, and clinicians—to treat patients with addiction. Despite clear evidence that substance use disorders are deadly but treatable illnesses, the majority of patients do not receive necessary care. Through expert interviews and firsthand reporting, the episode explores why widespread stigma, lack of training, and systemic policy failures continue to leave addiction patients marginalized in medical settings.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Case Study: Jean Descamps (02:28–06:26)

• Event Recap:
  In December 2023, Jean Descamps, a homeless 26-year-old experiencing an apparent overdose, was brought to Providence Hospital in Milwaukee, Oregon. Despite obvious distress, he was turned away by hospital staff, who claimed he was "faking" and his condition was "100% behavioral." Police officers, unsatisfied and concerned, relocated him to another facility, but he overdosed en route and died.

• Memorable Quotes:

  • Hospital staff to police:

    "He's been evaluated medically. There's no medical problems for him." (03:31)
    "Yep, 100% behavioral." (03:37)

  • Officer expressing discomfort:

    "You at all feel comfortable with anything that's going on right now? No." (03:56)

2. National Pattern of Neglect (03:59–06:26)

• Epidemic Scale:
  Decamp's case is not isolated. NPR's investigation uncovers that people with substance use disorders are often denied meaningful care—sometimes receiving only minimal intervention before being discharged.

• Expert Insight—Dr. Judy Chertak (Univ. of Pennsylvania):

  "We would not allow as a society people with heart attacks to come to a hospital and not get appropriate treatment. This is as serious as that." (04:54)

• Statistical Context:

  • Over 250,000 Americans die annually from alcohol and drug-related illness.
  • Fewer than 1 in 5 people with severe addiction receive medical treatment.

3. Missed Opportunities for Intervention (05:39–06:49)

• Many who die from substance use disorders had recent interactions with the healthcare system—even just months or weeks before death.

  "Many who ultimately die from their illness have had significant contacts with healthcare and social services agencies in the few months leading up to their deaths." — Dr. Judy Chertak (05:22)

• CDC Study:

  • Two-thirds of fatal overdoses in 2024 involved individuals who, at some point prior, could have received medical intervention but did not.

4. Why Aren’t More Clinicians Treating Addiction? (06:26–08:16)

• Stigma & Systemic Gaps:

  • Addiction is not consistently treated as a medical condition.

    "Where it comes to substance use disorder, we've not decided as a country. This is an illness we actually can treat." — Beth Meyerson (University of Arizona) (06:26)

  • Doctors and nurses often shunt addiction patients elsewhere, rarely initiating evidence-based care with proven medications.

• Available and Underused Treatments:

  • Effective medications like methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone exist and are easy to prescribe.

    "We have good tools. Methadone and buprenorphine are gold standard... Access to treatment will reduce opioid overdose by 60% in some studies. I saw 80% in 2022." — Beth Meyerson (07:11)

  • Despite policy reforms, most clinicians still refuse to offer these medications.

5. Deeply Rooted Stigma (07:57–08:25)

• Clinician Attitudes:

  "I have observed or heard people talk about someone with addiction in the healthcare setting in a way that is not tolerated for any other group. It’s so jarring that that is accepted by so many." — Dr. Judy Chertak (07:57)

  • Stigma leads to suspicion, reluctance to treat, and even overt hostility.

• Myths and Misconceptions:

  • Many healthcare professionals wrongly believe patients will "abuse" addiction medications, despite evidence to the contrary.

• Systemic Failure:

  "They don't want these people around them. They don't think that the drugs that we have that are FDA approved medications are really going to actually help the patient. That is what I would say is a fatal flaw in our system." — Robert Deford, Shatterproof (08:18, paraphrased from context)

6. Education and Policy Gaps (08:25–09:37)

• Lack of Training:

  • Medical and nursing schools rarely train students to treat substance use disorder as a regular part of their practice.

    “We will have to have very clear laws, policies and frankly, training practices and curriculum in medical schools, nursing schools to really combat this. I know we can do this.” — Beth Meyerson (09:25)

• Unaccountable System:

  • There are minimal legal or professional consequences for providers who deny care, even when it results in patient deaths.
  • In Decamp’s case, no disciplinary actions were taken against the hospital or its staff.

7. Accountability and Hospital Response (09:37–10:27)

• Hospital (Providence Milwaukee) did not answer NPR’s direct inquiries. Their prepared statement admitted that "we fell short of our goal of providing safe, reliable, compassionate care" but insisted that hospitals shouldn't be held responsible for patient outcomes post-discharge.

• Police reaction post-mortem:

  "That guy does not need to be dead right now." — Unnamed Officer (10:08)

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "[We] are othering the person with opioid use disorder or substance use disorder—suddenly, not our patient anymore." — Beth Meyerson (00:37)
• "This is as serious as [a heart attack]." — Dr. Judy Chertak (04:54)
• "Access to treatment will reduce opioid overdose by 60%... in some studies, I saw 80% in 2022." — Beth Meyerson (07:11)
• "I have observed or heard people talk about someone with addiction in the healthcare setting in a way that is not tolerated for any other group." — Dr. Judy Chertak (07:57)
• "We will have to have very clear laws, policies... training practices and curriculum in medical schools, nursing schools, to really combat this." — Beth Meyerson (09:25)
• "That guy does not need to be dead right now." — Police officer, after Descamps’ fatal overdose (10:08)

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Conclusion

The episode paints a stark picture of how stigma and policy inertia in the US healthcare system cost lives, even as effective treatments for addiction have been available for decades. Despite minor progress, experts say that until medical training, attitudes, and accountability shift, turning away patients in need will remain tragically common.

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Transcript

[Ilsa Chang]

It's consider this where every day we go deep on one big news story today. Why do so many doctors and nurses avoid treating patients with addiction? One night in December 2023, Jean Descamp was unresponsive and taken to the emergency room. He was experiencing signs of an overdose, and when police arrived, they pleaded with hospital staff to let him stay.

[Brian Mann]

Why is he being released? We have no place to take him.

[Ilsa Chang]

Experts say interactions like this are common where people experiencing signs of addiction are turned away from care by health care workers.

[Beth Meyerson]

We are othering the person with opioid use disorder or substance use disorder suddenly not our patient anymore.

[Ilsa Chang]

Beth Meyerson is an expert on addiction treatment at the University of Arizona College of Nursing.

[Beth Meyerson]

We're going to not see that patient as a person anymore. That dehumanization process, we just can't filter that out.

[Ilsa Chang]

Consider this. About a quarter of a million people die each year from alcohol and drug related illness. And there are proven medical treatments for addiction. So why aren't doctors prescribing them more often? From npr, I'm Ilsa Chang.

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[Ilsa Chang]

It's Consider this from npr. What would happen if doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers failed to treat patients facing a common and often deadly illness? Well, that is happening right now to millions of people in the US who struggle with alcohol and drug addiction. New federal data shows the vast majority of people with serious addictions still are not getting treatment, in part because most doctors refuse to offer medications proven to save lives. NPR's Brian Mann reports on a cold

[Brian Mann]

December night in 2023, Jean Descamps was taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Providence Hospital in Milwaukee, Oregon, south of port. Descampf was 26 years old, homeless, emaciated, and experiencing what doctors believed was chronic street drug addiction, a leading cause of death for young Americans. The hospital's medical team cleaned him up and gave him Narcan, a medication that reverses opioid overdoses. But as he lay slumped and unresponsive, doctors and nurses called police and told them to remove Descamp, suggesting they drop him at a bus station. He's been evaluated medically. There's no medical problems for him. One of the hospital's medical team can be heard there on a body camera recording released by Milwaukee police. NPR hasn't been able to identify the speaker. He tells officers Descamp is faking the severity of his illness. And it's all behavioral. Yep, 100% behavioral. Police used a wheelchair to roll Dacamp's limp body into the dark hospital parking lot. In the cold, officers draped him with a blanket, voicing a concern about his safety. You at all feel comfortable with anything that's going on right now? No. A spokesman for Providence Milwaukee Hospital declined NPR's request for an interview about Descamp's case and didn't respond to detailed questions about his treatment. A statement issued to the media by the hospital after Descamp's death said, quote, we fell short of our goal of providing safe, reliable, compassionate care to our patient. After interviews with more than a dozen doctors, researchers and government officials, and a review of research and federal data, NPR found what happened that night in Oregon is part of a troubling national pattern. People with serious alcohol and drug addiction in regularly go to doctor's offices, clinics and hospitals, but are turned away after receiving insufficient or no treatment. Dr. Judy Chertak treats patients and teaches addiction medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

[Dr. Judy Chertak]

We would not allow as a society people with heart attacks to come to a hospital and not get appropriate treatment. This is as serious as that.

[Brian Mann]

Chertak and others have been working for years to bring addiction treatment into the medical mainstream. While overdose deaths have dropped in recent years, alcohol and drug related illnesses still kill a quarter million people in the US Every year. New federal data shows fewer than one in five people who need help get any medical treatment for their addiction.

[Dr. Judy Chertak]

Much of what I do is scream back at that. Many who ultimately die from their illness have had significant contacts with healthcare and social services agencies in the few months leading up to their deaths.

[Brian Mann]

In the case of Jean Descamps, on that winter night in Oregon, death came much faster. Hey Gene.

[Ilsa Chang]

Hey Gene.

[Dr. Judy Chertak]

Boy.

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I don't know. I don't know.

[Brian Mann]

Look at his eyes. I don't know. While officers were transporting Descamps to another medical facility, hoping to get him help, he overdosed from drugs already in his system. An investigation later found hospital staff never gave Descamps a toxicology test and ignored officers warning he might die. This kind of outcome is rarely caught on camera, but federal data suggests similar devastating medical events for people with addiction are common. One study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found two thirds of fatal overdoses in 2024 involved people who had some kind of opportunity for intervention but didn't get help.

[Beth Meyerson]

Where it comes to substance use disorder, we've not decided as a country. This is an illness we actually can treat.

[Brian Mann]

Beth Meyerson is an expert on addiction care at the University of Arizona's College of Nursing. She says the problem isn't just in hospital emergency rooms. It's still comm for most doctors and nurses to actively avoid treating patients with alcohol and drug related illnesses.

[Beth Meyerson]

So if I'm at my own gp, my own general practitioner, and I suddenly clear that I'm addicted to an opioid, my doctor will likely send me somewhere else, myerson says.

[Brian Mann]

For the most dangerous forms of addiction, alcohol and opioids, those doctors should be offering many of their patients medications available for decades that are low cost and relatively easy to prescribe.

[Beth Meyerson]

We have good tools. Methadone and buprenorphine are gold standard. And here's the best message. Here's the game changer. Access to treatment will reduce opioid overdose by 60% in some studies. I saw 80% in 2022.

[Brian Mann]

The federal government made it far easier for doctors to prescribe buprenorphine, a medication that reduces opioid cravings and withdrawal symptoms. But studies show most still don't. It's even more rare for clinicians to offer medications like naltrexone that reduce alcohol cravings. The obvious is why. If addiction is common and deadly but also treatable, why don't more clinicians help? Chertok, at the University of Pennsylvania, says many of her fellow doctors view addiction patients with deep suspicion and even hostility.

[Dr. Judy Chertak]

I have observed or heard people talk about someone with addiction in the healthcare setting in a way that is not tolerated for any other group. It's so jarring that that is accepted by so many.

[Brian Mann]

A report issued earlier this year by the American Medical association identified stigma among health workers as a significant hurdle for patients needing treatment. That bias is so widespread, many doctors believe their patients will abuse addiction medications to get high, even though studies show misuse of buprenorphine is rare. Robert Deford is with a group called Shatterproof that works to convince physicians to treat substance use disorders. So persistent stigma, right? They don't want these people around them. They don't think that the drugs that we have that are FDA approved medications are really going to actually help the patient. That is what I would say is a fatal flaw in our system. Most experts interviewed by NPR said there has been gradual improvement in addiction treatment. More doctors, offices, clinics and ERs are adopting science based treatment practices, but no one said the current level of care is acceptable. And we heard again and again that progress is being hindered by the fact that most medical and nursing schools still don't teach clinicians how to care for addiction patients as a core part of their practice. Meyerson at the University of Arizona says that has to change.

[Beth Meyerson]

We will have to have very clear laws, policies and frankly, training practices and curriculum in medical schools, nursing schools to really combat this. I know we can do this.

[Brian Mann]

But for now, there are few legal or professional consequences for providing insufficient care. Even when addiction patients die on the bott. In a body camera recording after Jean Descamps fatal overdose, police officers can be heard voicing sorrow and anger at his lack of treatment. That guy does not need to be dead right now. That guy does not need to be dead right now, the officer says. NPR reached out repeatedly to Oregon health officials and reviewed documents relating to Descamp's case, but found no record that Providence Hospital or its staff faced any kind of disciplinary action. In a statement sent to npr, hospital officials said they have improved staffing and strengthened procedures for caring for vulnerable patients. The statement also says hospitals shouldn't be held accountable for what happens to patients after they're discharged. Brian Mann, NPR News.

[Ilsa Chang]

This episode was produced by Liz Baker and Catherine Fink with audio engineering by Ted Niebane. It was edited by Maureen Pow and Tin Beat Ermias. Our director is Elena Moore and our interim executive producer is Courtney Dorning. It's consider this from npr. I'm Ailsa Chang.

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