Hospital admissions involving opioid overdoses in Pennsylvania fell by nearly 24 percent in 2018 to 833 admissions, according to a report published Sept. 18 by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council.
Researchers conducted a three-year review of data on Pennsylvania residents, age 15 and older, whose overdoses resulted in hospital admission between 2016 and 2018.
Here are five things to know:
1. Pennslyania saw 2,667 hospital overdose admissions in 2018, compared to 3,342 admission in 2016 and 3,500 in 2017.
2. Overdose death rates dropped by 18 percent in Pennsylvania from 2017 to 2018.
3. In 2018, opioid overdose hospitalizations made up a smaller percentage of all drug-related overdose admissions (46.8 percent), compared to 2017 (54.4 percent) and 2016 (52.6 percent).
4. Heroin overdose admissions dropped 36.4 percent from 1,753 in 2017 to 1,115 in 2018, marking the first decrease in almost a decade, Joe Martin, PHC4 executive director, told the Philadelphia Business Journal.
5. Hospital admissions for cocaine and amphetamine overdoses increased between 2016 and 2018.
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