Becker's Hospital Review

87 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Fentanyl Seizure Contained Enough Doses to Kill New Jersey and NYC's Entire Population By Brian Zimmerman A New Jersey Superior Court Judge sentenced two men for possessing nearly 100 pounds of fentan- yl, amounting to more than 18 million lethal dos- es of the extremely potent synthetic opioid. New Jersey police seized 45 kilograms of the drug from the men in June 2017, marking the largest fentanyl sei- zure ever in the state. At 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, just two to three milligrams of the sub- stance can yield a lethal dose. "Many lives were undoubtedly saved as a result of this record-setting fentanyl seizure by the New Jersey State Police," said Gurbir Grewal, New Jersey attorney general. "The 100 pounds of fentanyl trafficked into our state by these drug dealers could have generated enough lethal doses to kill the entire populations of New Jersey and New York City combined. Because dealers use this su- per-potent opioid to boost heroin and create counterfeit oxy pills, drug users are left to play a deadly game of Rus- sian roulette each time they give way to their addiction." The two men pleaded guilty to charges of drug posses- sion with intent to distribute in December of last year. The judge sentenced 28-year-old Daniel Vasquez of Somerton, Ariz., to six years in state prison on Jan. 24. On Jan. 26, the judge sentenced 31-year-old Jesus Car- rillo-Pineda of Philadelphia to 10 years in prison. In 2015, New Jersey experienced 417 fentanyl-related drug overdose deaths. In 2016, this number almost dou- bled to 800 such deaths. n 10 States With the Most Fatal Opioid Overdoses – Ohio Tops List By Brian Zimmerman S ixty-six percent of all drug overdose deaths were attrib- utable to opioids in 2016, according to a Jan. 31 Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of mortality data compiled by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. saw 63,632 drug overdoses in 2016, with 42,249 of these overdoses involving opioids. Here are 10 states that saw the most opioid overdose deaths in 2016. The proportion of overall overdose deaths related to opioids is listed in parenthesis for each state. 1. Ohio — 3,613 deaths (83 percent of overall fatal drug over- doses) 2. New York — 3,009 deaths (83 percent) 3. Florida — 2,798 deaths (59 percent) 4. Pennsylvania — 2,235 deaths (48 percent) 5. California — 2,012 deaths (43 percent) 6. Massachusetts — 1,990 deaths (89 percent) 7. Illinois — 1,947 deaths (81 percent) 8. Maryland — 1,821 deaths (89 percent) 9. Michigan — 1,762 deaths (75 percent) 10. North Carolina — 1,506 deaths (75 percent) Note: The 10 states with the highest percentage of opioid overdoses in 2016 were New Hampshire (91 percent), Mary- land (89 percent), Massachusetts (89 percent), Connecticut (88 percent), Rhode Island (86 percent), Maine (85 percent), New York (83 percent), Ohio (83 percent), West Virginia (83 percent) and Illinois (81 percent). n Aspen Valley Hospital Suspends Elective Surgeries Over Sterilization Issues By Alia Paavola A spen (Colo.) Valley Hospital sus- pended elective surgeries Jan. 25 due to problems with the facility's steril- ization process, reported e Aspen Times. Hospital workers noticed extra moisture in surgical packs, which prompted sterilization concerns. e problem was attributed to a mechanical issue with the hospital's steam sterilization process. Out of an abundance of caution, the hospital suspended elective sur- geries until the issue was resolved. e hospital still conducted emergent surger- ies with a small supply of untainted surgical packs. "We have very tight monitoring in place for moisture content, and if it is slightly elevated, we can't have moisture in a sterilized pack," Aspen Valley CEO David Ressler told e As- pen Times. "We immediately suspended any surgeries using those packs. We couldn't put them into our inventory, and we decided to suspend surgeries in general." e hospital resolved the steam sterilization issue and received clearance to resume all surgeries on Feb. 1. n

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