The Kasich Administration has invited Ohio ACEP and other professional provider stakeholders to participate in the Ohio Cabinet Opiate Action Team Professional Education Work Group. Three cabinet members are leading the top-level initiative and include Ted Wymyslo, MD, director of the Department of Health; Bonnie Kantor-Burman, ScD, director of the Department of Aging, and Orman Hall, director of the Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services. Ohio ACEP Executive Director Laura Tiberi, lobbyist Amanda Sines and Ohio ACEP member Dawn Prall, MD attended the first meeting, November 29.
Prescription opioids were involved in about 40 percent of all fatal drug overdoses in Ohio in 2000, more than heroin and cocaine combined. Information shared included that on average, from 2007-2009 there were 19 Emergency Department visits per day in Ohio for unintentional drug overdoses, totaling 2,000 per year; about 20 percent were related to opioids.
The Professional Education Group has identified the development of emergency department prescribing protocols and a white paper defining best practices for prescribing controlled-substance pain medicine in all practices as top priorities. Three other workgroups are addressing Enforcement, Treatment, and Public Education.