title: Can Emergency Department, Hospital Discharge, and Death Data Be Used to Monitor Burden of Drug Overdose in Rhode Island?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Drug overdoses are a growing public health problem in the United States. Rhode Island is also confronted with a serious epidemic of drug overdose deaths and ranks sixth worst in the United States for age-adjusted drug overdose death rate.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To monitor trends of drug overdose-related emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations, and deaths and classify the drug overdoses by demographics, discharge status, intent, and specific drug involved to plan for health care resource allocation, mental health services, drug abuse treatment, prevention, and policies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 2005-2014 ED, hospital discharge, and death data were used for this study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Age-adjusted rates were calculated by using age-specific Rhode Island 2010 standard population. Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project cost-to-charge ratios were used to convert total hospital charges to costs. The descriptive analysis was performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Hospitalizations generally represent the most severe cases; there are substantially fewer cases than are seen in the ED, and their characteristics are different from ED visits. More than half of the ED cases were an unintentional injury by drug overdose, but more than half of the hospital discharge data cases were a suicide/self-inflicted injury by drug overdose. There were typically much more females than males that result in a hospital admission. In Rhode Island, there were 249 drug overdose deaths in 2014. Drug overdose fatalities were more likely to be young, male, white, and those who reside in suburban regions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nonfatal and fatal drug overdose data are important for understanding the scope, incidence, and breadth of this public health epidemic and can guide overdose intervention efforts. In Rhode Island, policy makers can use drug overdose data to target high-risk subpopulations to reduce overdose injuries and fatalities. The Rhode Island study can be shared with other states.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Regardless of the type of drug, overdoses remain a public health crisis in Rhode Island. It is a dynamic epidemic and needs partnership among public health, behavioral health, public safety, clinic, pharmacy, and communities. The ability to track drug overdose in real time will be an essential tool to respond to the constantly evolving drug overdose epidemic in Rhode Island quickly and effectively.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Data and Analysis, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, Rhode Island (Dr Jiang and Ms Viner-Brown); Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (Dr Jiang); Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline, Board Certified Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, Rhode Island (Dr McDonald); Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention Program, Center for Health Promotion, Rhode Island Department of Health, Providence, Rhode Island (Mss Koziol and McCormick); Department of Health, Providence, Rhode Island (Dr Alexander-Scott); Department of Pediatrics and Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (Dr Alexander-Scott).
authors.forename: Yongwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: James V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koziol
authors.forename: Meghan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McCormick
authors.forename: Samara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Viner-Brown
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Alexander-Scott