TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Evaluation of an emergency department-based opioid overdose survivor intervention: difference-in-difference analysis of electronic health record data to assess key outcomes
JO  - Drug and alcohol dependence
A1  - Watson, Dennis P.
A1  - Weathers, Tess
A1  - McGuire, Alan
A1  - Cohen, Alex
A1  - Huynh, Philip
A1  - Bowes, Clay
A1  - O'Donnell, Daniel
A1  - Brucker, Krista
A1  - Gupta, Sumedha
SP  - e108595
EP  - e108595
VL  - 221
IS  - 
N2  - 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 0376-8716
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108595
ID  - ref1
ER  -