Suspected Drug Overdose Emergency Department Visits in Ottawa

<p><strong>Date Created:</strong> November 2023<br /><strong>Update Frequency:</strong> Weekly<br /><strong>Last Reviewed: </strong>November 2023<br /><strong>Accuracy, Completeness, and Known Issues:</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Data are extracted by OPH from Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox &amp; Addington (KFL&amp;A) Public Health’s Acute Care Enhanced Surveillance Application (ACES).&nbsp;</li><li>Emergency department visits may underestimate the full extent of drug overdoses because not everyone who experiences an overdose seeks care.</li><li>ACES categorizes each ED visit to a set of syndromes based on the words or codes for symptoms or complaints recorded in the chief complaint section in a patient’s triage record. The chief complaint at triage may not be the same as the final diagnosis.</li><li>OPH extracted all ED visits categorized as TOX or OPI with a clinical triage acuity score (CTAS) greater than 3 (i.e. severe). CTAS data are not available for ED visits to Queensway Carleton Hospital, so all ED visits categorized as TOX or OPI regardless of CTAS were included for this hospital.<br />&nbsp;</li></ul><p><strong>Attributes:</strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Week Starting on Monday – first date of the week, starting on Monday and ending on Sunday, when the emergency department (ED) visit occurred.</li><li>Number of suspected drug overdose ED visits to Ottawa hospitals – number of suspected drug overdose ED visits to Ottawa hospitals</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Data Steward: </strong>OPH Epidemiology Team<br /><strong>Data Steward Email: </strong><a href='mailto:[e-mail]' rel='nofollow ugc'>[e-mail]</a><br /><strong>Department or Agency: </strong>Ottawa Public Health<br /><strong>Branch/Unit: </strong>Epidemiology and Evidence<br />&nbsp;</p>