����ɫ��

Supervised consumption sites (SCS) can save��millions of dollars��and free up emergency medical services (EMS) for��non-opioid issues, says a recent report from��UCalgary��Nursing assistant professor��Dr. Jennifer Jackson��(PhD).����

“This study was about what saves money��for Alberta health��care,”��says Jackson, who is also a member of the O’Brien Institute for Public Health at ����ɫ�� Cumming School of Medicine (CSM). “And the take-away is that, yes, SCS save money,��free up ambulances, and decrease the number of people using emergency rooms.”����

Jackson used��population-level data, information that is��publicly available��from the Calgary SCS, as well as provincial data��for a three-year period (2017 to 2020)��to��analyze the cost benefit��of managing overdoses at the SCS instead of EMS.��Each overdose that is managed at the SCS produces approximately $1,600 in cost savings, with a savings of over $2.3 million since the site opened.��While the Government of Alberta released a report into SCS across the province��earlier this year, that document focused on community impact and not cost analysis.����

“We chose to look at overdose management, preventions of overdose-related deaths and the associated cost impacts for Alberta Health,”��Jackson explains.��“SCS are widely accepted as decreasing fatal accidental overdoses.��When people overdose at the SCS, the staff currently manage 98 per cent��of these at their site, which translates to 700 people a year that don’t need��ambulance or emergency management.”����

Jackson’s research��examined overdose rates and whether providing care at the SCS rather than in-hospital treatment was less expensive.��For the purposes of this research, Jackson and project consultants from��the Centre for Health Informatics at CSM defined an overdose as the application of a medical intervention to a client who is not rousable. This��includes administration��of��oxygen or��naloxone or calling EMS.��

Jackson’s hope is that her research will encourage policy-makers to look more closely at��SCS in Calgary specifically, but also across the spectrum.��

“In times where the health-care system is challenged to cut costs,��keeping��SCS are definitely a place where a difference can be made.”