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Overdose

Description

Overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids are a growing cause of mortality in the United States. Deaths from opioids have contributed to a rise in the overall mortality rate of middle-aged white males during an era when other demographics are experiencing life expectancy gains. A successful public health intervention to reverse this mortality trend requires a detailed understanding of which populations are most affected and where those populations live. While mortality is the most relevant metric for this emerging challenge, increased burden on laboratory facilities can create significant delays in obtaining confirmation of which patients died from opioid overdoses.

Emergency department visits for opioid overdoses can provide a more timely proxy measure of overall opioid use. Unfortunately, chief complaints do not always contain an indication of opioid involvement. Overdose patients are not always conscious at registration which limits the amount of information they can provide. Menu-driven registration systems can lump all overdoses together regardless of substance. A more complete record of the emergency department interaction, such as that provided by triage notes, could provide the information necessary to differentiate opioid-related visits from other overdoses. 

Objective

To identify heroin- and opioid-related emergency department visits using pre-diagnositc data. To demonstrate the value of clinical notes to public health surveillance and situational awareness. 

 

Submitted by Magou on

This focus of this webinar is to describe different syndromic surveillance approaches to drug overdose surveillance. Presenters will share how their case definitions were developed, stakeholders involved, intended audience and uses, as well as lessons learned.

Presenters

R. Matt Gladden, PhD Behavioral Scientist Prescription Drug Overdose Surveillance Team Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention/CDC

Amy Ising, MS Program Director for NC Detect, North Carolina's statewide syndromic surveillance system

Description

Nationally, deaths due to opioid overdose have continually increased for the past 15 years . Deaths specifically related to heroin increased more than four-fold between 2002 and 2014. Hospital inpatient discharge data provide information on non-fatal overdoses, but include a significant lag in reporting time. Syndromic ED visit data provide near real-time identification of public health issues and can be leveraged to inform public health actions on the emerging threat of drug overdose.

Objective

To develop and evaluate syndrome definitions for the identification of acute unintentional drug overdose events including opioid, heroin, and unspecified substances among emergency department (ED) visits in Virginia.

Submitted by teresa.hamby@d… on

High rates of morbidity and mortality among Americans related to opioid use constitute a public health epidemic, leading multiple jurisdictions to declare formal states of emergency or public health emergency. Declaring a state of emergency grants states and localities additional resources to address the epidemic immediately. The Fact Sheet, developed by the Network for Public Health Law and released July 20, 2017, provides a brief summary of the emergency declarations in six states.

Submitted by ctong on

This Fact Sheet, created by the Network for Public Health Law in May 2017 and updated as of December 6, 2017, provides a snapshot of current and proposed laws, regulations, and sub-regulatory sources governing mandatory disease reporting and a description of the laws and regulations governing reporting of overdoses in the jurisdictions that require or explicitly permit it.

Submitted by ctong on
Description

Washington State experienced a five-fold increase in deaths from unintentional drug overdoses between 1998 and 2014. The PMP collects data on controlled substances prescribed to patients and makes the data available to healthcare providers, giving providers another tool for patient care and safety. Optimal impact for the program depends on providers regularly accessing the information to review patients’ dispensing history. We have found through provider surveys and work with stakeholders that the best way to increase use is to make data seamlessly accessible through electronic health record systems (EHRs). This approach does not require a separate login to the PMP portal. This linkage works through the Health Information Exchange (HIE) to make PMP data available to providers via EHRs. The HIE facilitates electronic communication of patient information among organizations including hospitals and providers. In addition to the PMP, another resource to address the prescription drug abuse problem is the Emergency Department Information Exchange (EDIE), a web-based technology that specifically connects emergency departments statewide to track patients who visit multiple EDs. We also developed a connection between EDIE and PMP data through the HIE.

Objective

Demonstrate that use of the Washington State health information exchange (HIE) to facilitate access to prescription monitoring program (PMP) data enhances the effectiveness of a PMP. The increased accessibility will lead to improved patient care by giving providers more complete and recent data on patients’ controlled substance prescriptions.

Submitted by elamb on