STATEN ISLAND — A database that would tell doctors if their patients had previously overdosed on opioids is being proposed as a way to curb a drug epidemic on Staten Island.
Borough President James Oddo, Assemblyman Michael Cusick and District Attorney Michael McMahon wrote to the state's Department of Health asking it to create a system that alerts doctors of past overdoses as a way to ensure the patient isn't prescribed the drugs.
"If our doctors are armed with more information about their patients, they can prevent access to prescription drugs to those users who have previously overdosed," McMahon said in a statement.
"That will both stem criminal drug use from occurring and, more significantly, save the lives of those users already at risk of again harming themselves."
The DOH did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The push for the database stems from a study published earlier this month in the Annals of Internal Medicine which found 91% of the 2,848 patients who had previously overdosed were later prescribed opioids by their doctors.
Of the patients in the study, the ones who received opioid prescriptions later on were more likely to have another overdose than the ones who weren't.
Dr. Jessica Gregg, who wrote an editorial that accompanied the study, told Reuters that doctors likely don't know patients previously overdosed — as people who misuse are unlikely to report it — and there are no systems currently in place to notify them.
In the letter, the lawmakers volunteered Staten Island to serve as a pilot for the program, which they said could help addicted patients receive treatment services.
“We are seeking to tackle this problem from all angles,” Oddo said.
Staten Island has been in the throes of a prescription pill and heroin epidemic, with the borough having the highest rate of accidental overdose deaths in the city between 2000 and 2014, according to the Department of Health.
In 2014, 73 people died from prescription drug overdoses — up from 63 in 2013 — and 43 from heroin, up from 32 in 2013, according to the DOH.
To help curb the rising rates, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that naloxone — which essentially reverses the effect of an overdose — will be sold in pharmacies around the city.
The mayor also started the "Mayor’s Heroin and Prescription Opioid Public Awareness Task Force," gave $70,000 to expand the "Too Good for Drugs" anti-drug program in schools and set up a dedicated fund to provide 7,000 free naloxone kits to community-based organizations.
