The Opioid Crisis: An Update
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that there were a record number of American opioid deaths (47,600) in 2017 (Newman, Jan 28, 2019). Per the CDC, the ten hardest-hit states of opioid deaths from 2013-2017, in order, were New Mexico, Maine, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Hampshire, and the hardest hit state of West Virginia (Newman, Jan 28, 2019). To create a plan for reversing this trend, experts from numerous hospitals met at the U.S. News & World Report “Healthcare of Tomorrow Conference” in Washington, D.C., on November 18, 2019. These hospitals and the