MAINE, USA — Maine's Emergency Medical Services respond to calls about overdoses every day. Maine's EMS agencies received more than 27,000 calls to 911 for suspected overdoses in the last two years, according to the Department of Public Safety.
Maine's EMS bureau is piloting a new program, Maine EMS OPTIONS Referral Program, allowing first responders to directly connect patients struggling with substance use disorder to resources in their community to help.
The state's EMS director, Sam Hurley, said of the 27,000 calls, 30% of patients refused to go to the hospital.
Prior to this program, EMS workers could really only leave those patients a dose of Naloxone, Hurley said. However, this program will also allow EMS responders to refer those patients to resources a state initiative developed in 2021 to combat the opioid crisis, known as OPTIONS (Overdose Prevention Through intensive Outreach, Naloxone, and Safety).
"What we can do now with this new program is, directly within our charting system, we can obtain consent signatures and send electronically to the OPTIONS program, which is existing statewide programming to connect people to treatment resources," Hurley said.
Hurley said at the hospital, patients get access to leave behind Naloxone and a referral to treatment, but the 30% of patients who refuse to go to the emergency room don't have access to those things.
"This is really important for our rural communities in particular where going to the hospital may mean an hour and a half away or an hour away," Hurley said. "So, how do we meet them where they are with the resources that are already existing and available within our communities?"
There were 253 confirmed and suspected fatal overdoses from January to May of this year, according to the latest monthly overdose report from the Maine Office of the Attorney General and the University of Maine.
The Bar Harbor Fire Department is the pilot location, starting the program two weeks ago, Hurley said.
Maine EMS will roll out this program through the rest of this year, expecting to have a statewide implementation in 2024.
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