New data shows rising repeat ER visits for opioid-related emergencies

The emergency department is being increasingly utilized as a patient's best or only treatment option for opioid use disorder (OUD). New analysis in Annals of Emergency Medicine shows that the prevalence of patients who visited emergency departments at four Indiana hospital systems for repeat opioid-related emergencies jumped from 8.8 percent of all opioid-related visits in 2012 to 34.1 percent in 2017—nearly a four-fold increase in just five years.