• Tina Hu, Daniel McCormack, David N Juurlink, Tonya J Campbell, Ahmed M Bayoumi, Pamela Leece, Jessica T Kent, and Tara Gomes.
• Department of Family and Community Medicine (Hu, Leece), Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; Department of Family Medicine (Hu), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; ICES (McCormack, Juurlink, Kent, Gomes), Toronto, Ont.; Sunnybrook Research Institute (Juurlink); MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions (Campbell, Bayoumi, Gomes), Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital; Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (Bayoumi, Gomes), University of Toronto; Health Promotion, Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention (Leece), Public Health Ontario; Department of Emergency Medicine (Kent), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.
• CMAJ. 2023 Dec 17; 195 (49): E1709E1717E1709-E1717.

BackgroundEmergency department visits and hospital admissions for opioid toxicity are opportunities to initiate opioid agonist therapy (OAT), which reduces morbidity and mortality in patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). The study objectives were to evaluate OAT initiation rates after a hospital encounter for opioid toxicity in Ontario, Canada, and determine whether publication of a 2018 Canadian OUD management guideline was associated with increased initiation.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective, population-based serial cross-sectional study of hospital encounters for opioid toxicity among patients with OUD between Jan. 1, 2013, and Mar. 31, 2020, in Ontario, Canada. The primary outcome was OAT initiation (methadone, buprenorphine-naloxone, or slow-release oral morphine) within 7 days of discharge, measured quarterly. We examined the impact of the release of the OUD management guideline on OAT initiation rates using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average models.ResultsAmong 20 702 hospital visits for opioid toxicity among patients with OUD, the median age was 35 years, and 65.1% were male. Over the study period, the percentage of visits leading to OAT initiation within 7 days rose from 1.7% or less (Q1 2013) to 5.6% (Q1 2020); however, the publication of the Canadian OUD management guideline was not associated with a significant increase in these rates (0.14% slope change, 95% confidence interval -0.11% to 0.38%; p = 0.3).InterpretationAmong hospital encounters for opioid toxicity, despite rising prevalence over time, only 1 in 18 patients were dispensed OAT within a week of discharge in early 2020. These findings highlight missed opportunities to initiate therapies proven to reduce mortality in patients with OUD.© 2023 CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors.

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