Harrisburg, PA – Representatives from Governor Tom Wolf’s Opioid Operations Command Center today provided an update on initiatives included in Governor Wolf’s opioid disaster declaration and progress the group has made as it passes the halfway point of the 90-day disaster emergency period
“In his declaration, Governor Wolf directed state agencies to focus on 13 initiatives that involve a collaboration between all state agencies involved in this response,” said Ray Barishansky, deputy secretary for health planning and assessment for the Department of Health and incident commander for the Opioid Operational Command Center. “Together, we are developing tools to collect data that will bolster the state’s response to this epidemic.”
Representatives from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, Pennsylvania State Police, and Departments of Corrections, Drug and Alcohol Programs, Health, and Human Services discussed progress their departments are making under the disaster declaration, including:
- Monitoring weekly naloxone use by EMS providers;
- Ensuring that EMS providers have access to naloxone made available from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency;
- Working with emergency medical services to ensure naloxone is left behind for patients who are at risk of overdosing;
- Receiving more than 100 reports of neonatal abstinence syndrome cases under diagnostic criteria created by the Department of Health as part of the declaration;
- Waiving application fees for more than 30 birth certificate applicants who need a birth certificate to get treatment for a substance use disorder;
- Reducing overdoses and increasing facility safety through use of a piloted body scanner at Wernersville Community Correctional Facility;
- Granting exemptions for annual licensing requirements to more than 60 high-performing treatment providers.
The Department of Human Services also highlighted treatment accomplishments by the commonwealth’s 45 Centers of Excellence (COEs), with the goal of coordinating primary care and behavioral health for Pennsylvanians with a substance use disorder on Medicaid. In their first year of implementation, the COEs have interacted with nearly 15,000 patients, and 71 percent of these patients engaged in some level of substance use disorder treatment. Prior to the COE initiative, as few as 48 percent of Medicaid patients with a substance use disorder actually received treatment.
The Pennsylvania State Police also announced that since January 1, state police seized more than 30 pounds of heroin and nearly two pounds of fentanyl, which amounts to a combined street value of nearly $900,000.
For more information on the Wolf Administration’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and how to find treatment options in Pennsylvania, visit www.pa.gov/opioids.
MEDIA CONTACT: Ali Fogarty, 717.547.3314
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