Opioid-related admissions and deaths in hospital intensive care units spiked significantly between 2009 and 2015, according to new research, published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.
Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center researchers examined a national hospital database, focusing on close to 23 million hospital patient admissions in 162 hospitals, from Jan. 1, 2009 and Sept. 31, 2015. Of the 4 million patients requiring acute care, 21,705 were admitted to ICUs due to opioid overdoses.
The research shows a 34 percent increase in overdose-related ICU admissions over the seven-year study period. Deaths in the ICU due to opioid overdoses nearly doubled. Researchers observed a steeper rise in overdose-related ICU deaths post-2012.
Additionally, the average cost of care per ICU overdose admissions rose from $58,517 in 2009 to $92,408 in 2015, a jump of around 58 percent.
On Aug. 10, President Donald Trump declared America's opioid crisis a national emergency. "It's a national emergency. We're going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis," President Trump told reporters Thursday at his golf estate in Bedminster, N.J., according to The Washington Post.