Geospatial Clustering of Opioid-Related Emergency Medical Services Runs for Public Deployment of Naloxone.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

The epidemic of opioid use disorder and opioid overdose carries extensive morbidity and mortality and necessitates a multi-pronged, community-level response. Bystander administration of the opioid overdose antidote naloxone is effective, but it is not universally available and requires consistent effort on the part of citizens to proactively carry naloxone. An alternate approach would be to position naloxone kits where they are most needed in a community, in a manner analogous to automated external defibrillators. We hypothesized that opioid overdoses would show geospatial clustering within a community, leading to potential target sites for such publicly deployed naloxone (PDN).

Methods

We performed a retrospective chart review of 700 emergency medical service (

SUBMITTER: Dworkis DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6040905 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature