JULY 20248IMPROVING HOSPITAL RESPONSE TO THE CURRENT OPIOID CRISIS Hospitals are not drug treatment centers; however, for many with behavioral health conditions, due to difficult-to-navigate systems of care, we are a front door to accessing needed services, as inefficient and as wasteful as that might be. Far too often, emergency departments become revolving doors for community members with substance use disorders, particularly those with opioid use disorders who are fortunate enough to survive an overdose. So what is an organization to do? In addition, how can hospitals most effectively respond to our current opioid epidemic equitably?I recently chaired the Racial Disparities in Overdose Task Force for the State of Maryland'sMaryland's Inter-Agency Heroin and Opioid Coordinating Council. The task force was comprised of state government representatives, non-profit organizations, and advocacy groups, including those advocating on behalf of hospitals. Our charge was to identify programs and policies to eliminate the growing disparity in opioid deaths among the Black community in the State of Maryland.I am fortunate to work in such a collaborative state and a state strategically focused on addressing increases in opioid deaths in all communities. Despite significant effort and spending, opioid overdose deaths have increased disproportionately in the Black community in Maryland since 2017, much as it has across the nation. Given broad generic efforts are not having the desired impact on this focused community, it is critical to look at more targeted approaches to slow down the rate of increase of opioid overdose deaths, thereby decreasing the growing disparity.There is a role for many different participants in the healthcare ecosystem to combat and reverse this trend of increasing opioid overdose deaths. The Taskforce concluded that hospitals could help decrease opioid death disparities by In My OpinionAliya Jones, MD MBA, Executive Medical Director, Luminis HealthByAliya Jones
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