To see the most current Maryland electronic hospital records (EHR) data, visit the Emergency Department Drug Surveillance (EDDS) system on the CESAR web site. (Posted: June 11, 2020)
The Emergency Department Drug Surveillance (EDDS) is supported by a grant from the University of Maryland Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State: The Opioid Use Disorders Project awarded to the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and the School of Medicine at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).
CESAR is working with both Cerner and Epic electronic health record data sources, depending on the type of system a hospital uses.
- A Cerner hospital sample includes ED patients testing positive for at least one drug, regardless of diagnosis. Toxicology screens are typically ordered for suspected drug users, persons with psychiatric illnesses, or persons with an altered mental state.
- A Epic hospital sample includes all patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with a chief complaint and/or diagnosis of overdose or drug-related health problems, regardless of even being tested or not. Most of the Epic sample has no test results.
EPIC: A Pilot Study Using Electronic Health Records from Hospital Emergency Departments to Monitor Drug Use Trends in Overdose Patients in the Baltimore Area, January 2016-December 2018
From Implications: "The decline in the percentage of specimens testing positive for opiates was not expected. The opiate screen used by the hospitals included in the study primarily detects codeine and the heroin metabolite morphine, but not fentanyl or other synthetic opioids. The decline in opiate positives likely does not reflect patterns of use of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, which are not detected by the hospital screen."
CERNER BULLETIN: University of Maryland Prince George’s Hospital Center (UM PGHC), June 2013 to June 2019
From the Results: "Cocaine was found in 25% of the specimens from April-June 2019, the highest percentage of any quarter (Figure 1). However, marijuana remains the drug most often detected. Marijuana was found in 59% of specimens from April-June 2019 only slightly below its peak of 62% reached in October-December 2018. In contrast, opiate positives remain low, declining to 20% in April-June 2019, just above the low of 19% in April-June 2018. This decline must be interpreted with caution (see Implications below). Table 1 presents the results for all quarters and all drugs."
