CReDO: Community Response to Drug Overdoses

The vision is contact tracing for fentanyl overdoses ― not just for coronavirus. The San Diego CReDO Task Force is designed to connect public health, public safety, and prevention to provide a coordinated response to drug overdoses. Presenters will introduce the structure of CReDO and describe how monthly data and case sharing led to rapid collaboration and connection between the San Diego District Attorney’s Office and the EMS community to save babies who overdosed from fentanyl. They will present drug testing procedures and present case studies to demonstrate where hospital drug testing would have improved investigations by the medical examiner. They will share how cases from an overdose death changes practices in hospitals and how medical expertise assists work by the Department of Homeland Security. They will discuss best practices for implementing universal fentanyl testing in hospital drug screens and share best practices learned throughout experiences introducing the gold practice in San Diego County. Participants will review the Fentanyl Toolkit and learn how to implement similar procedures in their communities. A positive fentanyl test in a hospital setting can save lives by alerting a patient and friends of the presence of fentanyl, informing the treating provider, leading to a prescription of naloxone, and connecting to addiction treatment.