Summary

This dashboard presents data from the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Trauma Registries where the provider entered an initial impression or the patient's symptom as a drug poisoning.

Data source:

The data used for this visualization are EMS responses reported to the Texas EMS and Trauma Registries (EMSTR)

Inclusion Criteria for all drug poisonings are:

• Primary Symptom, Other Associated Symptom, Provider's Primary Impression, or Provider's Secondary Impressions variables include International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes associated with all types of:
• Poisonings
• Opioids
• Cannabis
• Sedatives
• Stimulants
• Cocaine
• Hallucinogens
• Inhalants
• Other psychoactive substances
• Protocols used are:
• General overdose/poisoning/toxic ingestion
• Medical beta-blocker poisoning/overdose
• Medical calcium channel blocker poisoning/overdose
• Medical opioid poisoning/overdose
• Medical stimulant poisoning/overdose

Inclusion Criteria for opioid drug poisonings are:

• Primary Symptom, Other Associated Symptom, Provider's Primary Impression, or Provider's Secondary Impressions variables include ICD 10 codes associated with poisonings by:
• Opium
• Heroin
• Opioids
• Methadone
• Synthetic narcotics
• Unspecified narcotics
• Other narcotics
• Primary Symptom, Other Associated Symptom, Provider's Primary Impression, or Provider's Secondary Impressions variable include ICD 10 codes associated with:
• Opioid abuse
• Opioid dependence
• Opioid use
• Protocols used are medical opioid poisoning/overdose.

Inclusion Criteria for stimulant drug poisonings are:

• Primary Symptom, Other Associated Symptom, Provider's Primary Impression, or Provider's Secondary Impressions variables include ICD 10 codes associated with poisonings by:
• Cocaine
• Psychostimulants
• Caffeine
• Amphetamines
• Methylphenidates
• Other psychostimulants
• Cardiac-stimulant glycosides
• Stimulant laxatives
• Primary Symptom, Other Associated Symptom, Provider's Primary Impression, or Provider's Secondary Impressions variables include ICD 10 codes associated with:
• Cocaine abuse
• Cocaine dependence
• Cocaine use
• Other stimulant abuse
• Other stimulant dependence
• Other stimulant use
• Protocols used are medical stimulant poisoning/overdose.

The full list of ICD codes inclusion criteria can be found here.

Data Description:

EMSTR collects data on all Texas EMS responses. An EMS response is defined as a resulting action from a call for assistance where an EMS provider is dispatched to, responds to, provides care to, or transports a person. By law, EMS agencies must report responses to EMSTR within 90 calendar days of the date of call for assistance.

Measure Information:

The dashboard's data includes any non-fatal drug poisonings, non-fatal opioid drug poisonings, and non-fatal stimulant drug poisonings reported through the EMSTR System.

Inclusion criteria is based on patient symptoms and/or primary impressions indicating a drug poisoning as the reason for EMS response or treatment provided is consistent with EMS agency adopted national/state/local protocols for drug poisoning. Each category's specific inclusion criteria is defined on the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) website here.

EMSTR did not follow the NEMSIS inclusion criteria of "patient response to common overdose reversal medications implies an overdose" due to unavailable data elements about patient response to medications in the downloaded Texas dataset.

EMSTR excluded fatal drug poisonings from this dashboard.

Average EMS Time to Patient indicates the time from dispatch to when EMS arrives at the patient.

Number of Patients Receiving Naloxone refers to the number of Naloxone administrations given by EMS providers to non-fatal drug poisoning patients. One patient may receive more than one administration of naloxone during the same non-fatal drug poisoning event. Naloxone administrations are counted individually.

Rate is defined as the frequency or occurrence of a particular outcome over a defined period among a specific group. In this case, the rate is the number of drug poisonings among the total number of Texans for that given year of data.

EMSTR suppresses any counts between one and four.

Additional Information:

Texas DSHS Injury Prevention Unit: dshs.texas.gov/injury-prevention

NEMSIS National Non-fatal Drug Overdose Surveillance Dashboard: nemsis.org/drug-overdose-surveillance-dashboard/