Overall Findings

Results

Overall Findings

In 2019, SUD-related ED visits and hospitalizations were common among people receiving care at New Jersey hospitals .

Among 3,137,437 documented ED visits that did not result in an inpatient stay, 0.7% (21,182 encounters) had injection-related SUD listed as a primary reason for the visit — indicating this was a main reason for the ED visit — and 2 .0% (62,595 encounters) had injection-related SUDs as a primary or secondary reason for the visit .

Overall, 1,967 visits to the ED were caused by IDU-related infections . This is 3.1% of visits by patients with an injection-related SUD .

In 2019, there were 928,786 inpatient hospital stays in New Jersey . 5.2% (or 48,048 encounters) of hospitalizations included an injection-related SUD diagnosis, and 0.8% (or 7,812) listed an injection-related SUD as the primary reason for hospitalization . Of these, 0.8% of all hospitalizations, or 15.2% of hospitalizations with an injection-related SUD diagnosis (7,310 hospitalizations) were for IDU-SBIs .

The median length of stay for IDU-related infections was five days (inter quartile range [IQR], of 3–10 days) . Median total length of stay was longest for those hospitalized with endocarditis at eight days (IQR 3 – 18 days), and osteomyelitis at eight days (IQR 4 – 14 days), followed by bacteremia/sepsis at six days (IQR 3 – 12 days) and skin and soft tissue infections at four days (IQR 3 – 8 days) .

Death was the result of 3.9% of these hospitalizations — in other words, 283 people died from IDU-SBIs while hospitalized in the state in 2019 .

Approximately 20% of hospitalizations resulted in patient-directed discharges (labeled “against medical advice” in data analyzed for this report) . A patient-directed discharge occurs when an individual leaves before the care team treating the patient believes the