Cook County Health Fights Opioid Overdoses with Strategically Placed Naloxone Vending Machines

Opioid overdose claimed 1,026 lives in 2024 in Cook County, Ill., the second most populous county in the nation and home to Chicago, .

"These are deaths of our neighbors, our families, our aunts and uncles and cousins and brothers and sisters," said Tom Nutter, MD, chief behavioral health officer at association member Cook County Health.

As part of a six-month pilot program to combat the opioid epidemic in the city, the health system partnered with the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) in September to install new vending machines that dispense free naloxone at five CTA rail stations.

Naloxone is a nasal spray approved by the Food and Drug Administration that can rapidly reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. The spray can quickly restore normal breathing to a person if their breathing has slowed or stopped. Each box of naloxone available in the machines contains two doses.

"[Opioid use disorder is] something that's right out in the open," said Nutter. "We want [it] to be dealt with right out in the open as well."

Nutter says that just one dose could potentially be lifesaving.

"It just makes sense for us to try to get naloxone into the hands of as many people as possible so that as many lives as possible can be saved," he said.

Cook County Health invested $100,000 to cover the costs of procurement, installation, and maintenance of the machines, supported by funds from the U.S. Department of Treasury, under the American Rescue Plan Act. The health system chose the five stations based on community input and data that indicated areas with higher opioid-related emergencies.

Through data gathering and networking efforts, Nutter's team at the Office of Behavioral Health has formed crucial partnerships across a variety of sectors.

"Where prevention of opioid deaths is concerned, there has been a lot of teamwork across governmental agencies," said Nutter. "There's a monthly meeting held by the Chicago Department of Public Health looking at hotspots and where a lot of us convene monthly to get the latest data."

The CTA partnership is part of the Office of Behavioral Health's greater efforts to address the opioid epidemic by meeting people where they are.

Cook County Health began placing the machines at its hospitals as well as county courthouses and the county jail in October 2024, in partnership with the Cook County Department of Public Health. As of Oct. 23, 2025, 6,000 boxes of naloxone have been distributed across 13 locations.

"Folks with opioid use disorder in particular can sometimes be ostracized or thought of as somehow different than everyone else," said Nutter. "The fact of the matter is that's not the case."

While funding is set to expire in 2026, Nutter is hopeful that the program can continue to meet community needs.

To learn more about how essential hospitals are addressing social needs in their communities, read Essential Hospitals Institute's Transforming Care: Insights from Social Medicine in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment report.

Pictures: Jonathan Rhodes, Cook County

https://www.cookcountyil.gov/news/opioid-overdose-deaths-homicides-suicides-and-overall-medical-examiner-caseload-drop-cook

https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/about/understanding-the-opioid-overdose-epidemic.html