With an ongoing opioid crisis in Connecticut and around the world, debate continues about the best way to reduce the number of overdose deaths and to expand care for people suffering from substance disorders.
The Public Health Committee heard testimony Friday regarding House Bill 5291, which would require hospitals around the state to administer toxicology tests to determine what drug(s) caused a patient’s overdose – with the patient’s consent.
The Connecticut Hospital Association submitted a written testimony in opposition to the bill.
Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani said that, because of federal CDC grant money, the department can conduct toxicology reports in its lab on urine samples taken from survivors of drug overdoses. According to Juthani, only two hospitals in the state are currently gathering those samples voluntarily.
Juthani said the proposed bill would require toxicology tests in order to properly collect data on which drugs people are using when they overdose. Currently, testing is only required to be done on overdose fatalities. There are almost 5,000 non-fatal overdoses per year, according to the Department of Public Health.
“The purpose of this legislation really is to compile a comprehensive report on toxicology information for non-fatal overdoses, to really give us a better indication as to where things stand,” Juthani said.
Public Health Committee co-chair Sen. Saud Anwar, a Democrat from South Windsor and a medical doctor, said in a phone interview Friday that while he agrees with the bill and wants to see it passed, there are other ways to help those with substance abuse disorders.
Anwar said that harm reduction centers, which would do screening of the drugs that patients brought in with them, would provide a good avenue for community surveillance.
“If the goal is to save people, which is my goal, then we have to do whatever it takes to save the lives, and to save the lives, you have to meet people wherever they are,” he said.
Anwar added that because of the federal money that has been made available to the DPH, toxicology testing is a good option. Still, he said he wishes more could be done to help.
“You have to live in order to make it to the hospital,” Anwar said.
The Connecticut Hospital Association said that staff in the Emergency Departments at hospitals throughout the state are already stretched too thin.
“Connecticut’s healthcare safety net has been on the verge of breaking as EDs often become gridlocked with patients waiting to be seen by an emergency medicine clinician or specialist, waiting for admission to an inpatient bed in a hospital, or waiting to be transferred to a psychiatric, skilled nursing, or other facility,” the testimony read.
In addition, the association expressed concern about the lack of clarity in the bill regarding patient consent.
Juthani said that under current statutes the information gathered would be confidential. She said she does not view that as a risk. She also said that the funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would not pay for nurses to take urine samples, but rather would only pay for testing.
CHA recommended that the committee add a “sunset date” to the bill, so that the requirements do not outlast the five-year federal grant that makes the reporting requirement possible.
