WASHINGTON — A new report shows that hospitals are straining under a new influx of victims of the opioid crisis.
A report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality tracked opioid-related inpatient hospital stays and emergency-room visits for 2014 and found that the rate of the former went up 64 percent over the numbers from 2005, while the latter nearly doubled.
Maryland is one of the most troubled states in this regard: The state had one of the highest rate of inpatient stays related to opioids in 2014, the report said, at 442.7 men per 100,000 in population and 367.2 women. They had the highest rate of emergency-department visits, with 353.5 men per 100,000 and 251.1 women.
With regard to inpatient stays, Maryland ranked in the top 25 percent in three of the four age groups specified by the study: 1 to 24, 25 to 44 and 45 to 64, ranking in the middle only in the 65-and-up group. For emergency-department visits, Maryland was in the top one-quarter in all age groups.
Virginia was in the middle of the pack for inpatient stays, and did not report numbers for emergency-department visits.
D.C. didn’t report numbers for emergency-department visits, but led the nation in males’ inpatient stays at 472 per 100,000 population, The number for women was 312.8.
Nationwide, the rate of inpatient stays per 100,000 people rose 54.5 percent among males and 75.3 percent among females; for emergency-department visits, the numbers are 103.1 percent and 94.8 percent, respectively.
