{
  "abstract": "Background Data on fatal and non-fatal overdose provide important information about the magnitude of the overdose crisis. We consider these metrics in tandem and estimated the ratio of opioid overdose-related emergency department (ED) visits to opioid overdose deaths. A lower ratio could indicate more fatal overdoses, fewer overdose reversals with naloxone or a combination of both.Methods Data are from the Maryland Vital Statistics Administration (opioid overdose deaths), the Health Services Cost Review Commission (non-fatal ED visits for opioid overdose). We generated 2020 annual rates of fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose deaths for the state of Maryland and its 24 jurisdictions and estimated the ratio of opioid overdose-related ED visits to deaths.Results The 2020 visit-to-death ratio for Maryland was 1.7, and ranged from 0.9 to 3.8 across jurisdictions. We identified five counties that had above-median rates of opioid overdose-related ED visits and deaths, and low visit-to-death ratios.Conclusions Our findings indicate that there were nearly two ED visits for each opioid overdose death in Maryland, and there was substantial variation across counties. The visit-to-death ratio enables a better understanding of the relationship between fatal and non-fatal opioid overdose and is essential to averting deaths and evaluating overdose prevention efforts.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Himani Byregowda"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Ryoko Susukida"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Masoumeh Amin-Esmaeili"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Vital Statistics Administration, Maryland Department of Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Monique Wilson"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Public Health Services, Maryland Department of Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Marie Stratton"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Renee M Johnson"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Ratio of emergency department visits to deaths for opioid overdose",
  "uid": "bd391f5e-956b-5dca-bc0e-655d194491eb"
}