New interactive dashboard reports on opioid, substance use cases in Hennepin County
By Katie Fongvongsa, WCCO Intern
MINNEAPOLIS -- As the opioid and substance use crisis continues to mount, the Minnesota Electronic Health Record Consortium and Hennepin County have revealed their new, real-time substance use disorder dashboard.
This interactive system is updated monthly with a compilation of Hennepin County emergency and hospital visits where substances are found. The data includes a patient's age, gender, race or ethnicity, and location demographics and has records that go back as far as 2012.
The county said this information is aimed at "public health, human services, healthcare, community-based organizations, researchers, policymakers, and others." Visitors to the dashboard can see trends, implement interventions, and access resources, and use them for policymaking.
The SUD was made by the EHR Consortium, but Hennepin Healthcare and Hennepin County remained partners throughout the project. The participating hospitals include Allina, HealthPartners, M Health Fairview, North Memorial, and the Veteran's Administration.
The dashboard data shows that alcohol is the most common case for visits, but that is trending downwards. In Minneapolis, opioid cases remain the majority against any other substance in Hennepin County. There are also graphics and statistics pertaining to illicit substances, psychostimulants, sedatives, cocaine, cannabis, and other combinations.
Available resources on the site include where to go for naloxone training, harm reduction and syringe services, treatment and recovery meetings, and community connections.
July has historically brought the peak number of annual substance cases in Hennepin County. This program targets the prevention of overdoses and deaths.