Substance Use Disorders
This section provides EMS professionals with resources and training focused on identifying, managing and responding to patients with substance use disorders (SUDs). Articles cover recognition of drug and alcohol use in the field, treatment best practices, harm reduction strategies, and the evolving role of EMS in the opioid crisis. Learn how to address provider safety, compassion fatigue and stigma, while improving patient outcomes through evidence-based care and community partnerships.
Reflecting on the pain of 10 killed in a hate-driven shooting, 100,000 dead of drug overdoses and 1 million lost to COVID-19
Our co-hosts dissect Editor-in-Chief Kerri Hatt’s recent article on fentanyl exposure based on her conversation with Simon Taxel, NRP, BA, crew chief and public safety diver with the Pittsburgh Bureau of EMS
The agency pleaded guilty to violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act by failing to properly keep track of their fentanyl and morphine stock
Officials said the hospitals are at a “critical point” of scrambling to find alternatives for injectable forms of fentanyl, morphine and hydromorphone
Quiz yourself on case studies presented at the Gathering of the Eagles that demonstrate some of the unique effects drugs can have on the heart
The CDC encouraged hospitals to do more to combat outbreaks and prevent repeat overdoses
One classroom was transformed into a trauma station where EMS providers demonstrated the critical steps a trauma team takes when working on an accident victim
A national database examining five metrics in evidence-based care gives EMS a framework to improve tactics, efficiency, outcomes and resource allocation
Through a partnership between Jan-Care Ambulance and FMRS Health Systems Inc., a program is in development to connect overdose survivors to treatment
By broadening addict and layperson access to naloxone, the paper claims naloxone access laws don’t reduce opioid-related mortality
Doctors now grapple with how to alleviate suffering without prescribing so much medication that it puts a patient at greater risk of addiction
Jenna Bixby was on her way to work when a man, who was driving the wrong way while intoxicated, slammed head-on into her car
One bill would prevent pharmacists from filling prescriptions that are more than 30 days old, and another imposes a fee of one cent per milligram of opioids
Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a task force that he said would crack down on manufacturers, distributors, doctors and pharmacies
Charleston leaders have raised concerns over dirty needles in public places that are “flipped around like cigarette butts”
Data suggests the tide of opioid overdoses is starting to turn in a number of states, driving an overall reduction in overdose deaths
A recent incident in which a rescue worker needed treatment for possible exposure to an opioid prompted the move
The ER at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center has decreased opioid prescriptions by 58 percent through their alternative program
911 dispatcher Jenna Bixby died after retired minister Richard Shaka hit her vehicle while driving the wrong way down the road
This issue features articles on the opioid epidemic’s impact on responders and how EMS is leading the charge in the post-overdose survival phase of the addiction cycle
Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration classified kratom as a dangerous opioid, prompting backlash from scientists who claim it can relieve pain
Police said Jenna Morasca bit an officer while in an ambulance after she was found unconscious in her running parked car
New Mexico had one of the highest overdose rates in the nation for the better part of two decades
An advance-practice nurse at the center said Melissa Tackett had falsified her signature on two scripts for the opioids
Carfentanil has become a key topic for health officials and law enforcement who work to combat this synthetic opioid’s responsibility for addiction and death that continues to rise.
The city’s EMS bureau last month became one of the first in Pennsylvania to implement a naloxone leave-behind program
Police said Jose Duran Romero’s blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, and he had bloodshot, glassy eyes at the time of the crash
The lawsuit alleges that The Recovery Center and four of its owners defrauded Medicaid by claiming it offered patients medical advice
Attorney General Jeff Sessions thinks the U.S. could easily combat the growing opioid crisis by taking over-the-counter medications for pain and “tough it out.”
The Food and Drug Administration said the herbal supplement kratom could be banned by the federal government
Santa Rosa Police Resource Officer Dan Jones said students will often turn themselves in when feeling negative side effects of the drugs
“The problem with the rumors: One, it causes this hysteria. And, two, it makes it difficult for us to get past the stigma,” Newtown Police Chief Tom Synan said
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