@article{ref1,
title="Evaluation of an emergency department-based opioid overdose survivor intervention: difference-in-difference analysis of electronic health record data to assess key outcomes",
journal="Drug and alcohol dependence",
year="2021",
author="Watson, Dennis P. and Weathers, Tess and McGuire, Alan and Cohen, Alex and Huynh, Philip and Bowes, Clay and O'Donnell, Daniel and Brucker, Krista and Gupta, Sumedha",
volume="221",
number="",
pages="e108595-e108595",
abstract="BACKGROUND: In recent years, a number of emergency department (ED)-based interventions have been developed to provide supports and/or treatment linkage for people who use opioids. However, there is limited research supporting the effectiveness of the majority of these interventions. Project POINT is an ED-based intervention aimed at providing opioid overdose survivors with naloxone and recovery supports and connecting them to evidence-based medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). An evaluation of POINT was conducted. <br><br>METHODS: A difference-in-difference analysis of electronic health record data was completed to understand the difference in outcomes for patients admitted to the ED when a POINT staff member was working versus times when they were not. The observation window was January 1, 2012 to July 6, 2019, which included N = 1462 unique individuals, of which 802 were in the POINT arm. Outcomes of focus include MOUD opioid prescriptions dispensed, active non-MOUD opioid prescriptions dispensed, naloxone access, and drug poisonings. <br><br>RESULTS: The POINT arm had a significant increase in MOUD prescriptions dispensed, non-MOUD prescriptions dispensed, and naloxone access (all p-values < 0.001). There was no significant effect related to subsequent drug poisoning-related hospital admissions. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The results support the assertion that POINT is meeting its two primary goals related to increasing naloxone access and connecting patients to MOUD. Generalization of these results is limited; however, the evaluation contributes to a nascent area of research and can serve a foundation for future work.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0376-8716",
doi="10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108595",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108595"
}