No abstract

E mergency departments (EDs) play a critical role in delivering services to people with opioid use disorder (OUD). 1,2 Emergency department physicians have not always been uniformly willing and able to provide these services, 3 even though patients with OUD visit EDs frequently 4 and most people who die of opioid overdose have visited an ED in the year preceding death. 5 For those ED and emergency medical services patients who survive an overdose, the subsequent 1-year mortality rate is 5%-15%. [6][7][8] In both Canada and the United States, the numbers of ED visits and deaths from opioid overdoses have increased in the last 5 years, [9][10][11][12] and the number of deaths has increased further during the COVID-19 pan-demic, perhaps as a result of decreased access to community resources. 13,14 Now more than ever, ED physicians have an opportunity and responsibility to offer life-sustaining OUD interventions, including opioid agonist therapy.