Resident Physician Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California Los Angeles, California, United States
Background: Per NIH and CDC statistics, in 2021 more than 106,000 people in the US died from drug involved overdose. While adults are primarily affected, there is an increasing number of deaths involving opioid use among all ages and genders which included prescription opioids, heroin, and synthetic opioids. Even adolescents who do not actively use opiates are at risk due to synthetic opioids being mixed with other drugs. Studies have shown that while drug use has remained relatively stable in adolescents, it is becoming more dangerous. One study found that death involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl increased 182% from 2019-2021 in youth aged 14-18 years. Innovative interventions must be utilized to combat this crisis. Objective: Our project aims to target adolescent youth seen at the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) clinic at risk of opioid overdose and improve Naloxone administration to these patients. Additionally, our project aims to improve provider education regarding Naloxone use and administration to improve their comfort level in prescribing Naloxone and educating patients on Naloxone use. Design/Methods: Prior to starting this project, we dispersed a questionnaire evaluating provider comfort and previous experience with prescribing Naloxone. Prior to the initiation of this project, none of the providers had prescribed Naloxone to a clinic patient or educated a patient about the use of Naloxone. All respondents requested additional training regarding this topic. Moreover, through the training sessions we discovered that discussion surrounding opioid use was not commonly a subject explicitly addressed during the social history component of the patient visit. For intervention, we provided educational seminars for providers and placed Naloxone advertisement posters in patient rooms to facilitate discussion. We also made Naloxone readily available for distribution at the clinic. Preliminary data shows an increase in Naloxone distribution to patients. Next steps involve administering a follow up survey to clinic providers to assess comfort with Naloxone administration.
