Emergency Medical Dispatch Identification of Opioid Overdose and Frequency of Naloxone Administration on Scene
Richard E. Lindfors, NRP, EMD-Q, Byron Shultz, Greg Scott, MBA, EMD-QI, Isabel Gardett, PhD, Meghan Broadbent, MS, Srilakshmi Sangaraju, MS, Rob Lawrence, Danny Garrison, Shannon Smith, Todd Stout, Marc Gay, Mike Taigman, MS, Jeff J. Clawson, MD, Christopher Olola, PhD
Aug 13, 2019|AEDR 2019 Vol. 7 Issue 2|Original Research
Opioid overdoses have reached crisis proportions. One response has been to increase the availability of naloxone HCl (commonly referred to by the generic name naloxone), which reverses the effects of opioid overdose. The Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS®) includes instructions by which the Emergency Medical Dispatcher (EMD) can prompt the caller to find and use naloxone on overdose victims. However, these instructions are only provided on dispatch Chief Complaint (CC) Protocols on which overdoses are expected to be handled...