Portsmouth Regional Hospital, Parkland Medical Center and Frisbie Memorial Hospital, part of HCA Healthcare, collected nearly 600 pounds of medications during HCA Healthcare’s seventh annual “Crush the Crisis” prescription drug take back day, held Oct. 25, 2025. Across HCA Healthcare, 108,500 pounds of medication has been collected since “Crush the Crisis” was launched as an enterprise initiative in 2019.
Working alongside local law enforcement officers, the hospitals invited community members to safely and anonymously dispose of their unused and expired medications. The event aligned with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) National Prescription Drug Take Back Day and helped raise awareness about the dangers of prescription drug misuse. This year, the DEA collected 571,054 pounds of medication during its October event.
“Prescription drug misuse is a significant public health challenge, and we are proud to partner with law enforcement each year to provide a safe way to dispose of medication,” said Dr. Brian Sanders, Seacoast chief medical officer for HCA Healthcare’s New Hampshire hospitals.
HCA Healthcare uses data from approximately 37 million annual patient encounters to help continuously improve care, and uses the science of “big data” to reduce prescription drug misuse and transform pain management, with initiatives in surgical, emergency and other care settings, including:
Enhanced Surgical Recovery (ESR): a multi-modal approach to pain management using pre-, intra- and post-operative interventions to optimize outcomes. HCA Healthcare’s ESR programs have demonstrated significant improvements in surgical recovery and patient satisfaction, including decreases in opioid usage.
Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): aims to stem increasing rates of prescription pain reliever-related addiction, misuse diversion and death by making it more difficult for medication-seekers to doctor-shop and alter prescriptions. Physicians have access to aggregated electronic health records, providing data that will allow them to prescribe opioids judiciously.
This year, all 15 HCA Healthcare U.S. divisions participated in the “Crush the Crisis” prescription drug take back day at more than 140 collection sites across 15 states.