Emergency Department Visits for Overdose by Franklin County Residents
When a person overdoses on a drug, that person may be taken to one of the many emergency departments (EDs) located at hospitals throughout Franklin County for treatment and observation. When an overdose patient is admitted to an ED, doctors in the ED will record a great deal of information about the encounter. This includes the date and time of admission as well as patient demographics such as age, race, and ZIP code. Here, ZIP code is the ZIP code associated with where the admitted patient lives, not the ZIP code where the overdose occurred. Doctors will also note whether the overdose was caused by opioids or stimulants when the drug involved is known, or as a general overdose where the drug involved is unknown.
Additional information about emergency department visits for overdose
After this data is recorded at a hospital ED, it is also sent to EpiCenter, which is a tool used by the Ohio Department of Health to show data from all Ohio hospitals in a single space. EpiCenter allows Franklin County Public Health staff to access population-level data about ED admissions, letting them observe why people are admitted to EDs across Franklin County. This data is used to observe trends in overdoses within the population, and can also serve as a warning when concerning increases ("surges") in overdoses are occurring.
The data in this dashboard shows all ED admissions for suspected drug overdose among Franklin County residents since 2015. While Franklin County EDs also admit patients that do not live in Franklin County, these admissions have not been included in the data below. This was done to specifically highlight how drug overdoses have been impacting our friends, family, and neighbors in Franklin County. This data can be used to look at changes in ED admissions for overdoses over time, learn about the demographics of patients admitted to EDs for overdoses, and see which ZIP codes have the most and least number of residents being seen in the ED for a suspected overdose.