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The Florida Department of Health works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts.

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Non-Fatal Overdoses

Overdose Response

Strategy 2: Overdose Morbidity Surveillance

Strategy 2 of the Overdose Data to Action in States (OD2A-S) program is the strategy focused on non-fatal overdose surveillance. The overall goal of this strategy is to increase the timeliness and accessibility of aggregate non-fatal drug overdose data through enhanced surveillance of suspected opioid, heroin, methamphetamine, benzodiazepine, cocaine, fentanyl, all drug, and stimulant overdoses.

Non-fatal overdose data are collected from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), Florida Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (FL-ESSENCE), and Florida’s Emergency Medical Services Tracking and Reporting System (EMSTARS). AHCA databases provide information on drug overdose visits to Florida emergency departments (ED) and hospitals, FL-ESSENCE provides near real-time estimates of suspected non-fatal overdose ED visits, while EMSTARS tracks drug overdose related emergency medical service events.

Strategy 4: Overdose Biosurveillance

Strategy 4 of OD2A-S is dedicated to building a laboratory-confirmed database to identified substances involved in suspected non-fatal overdoses in the emergency department (ED). Florida's OD2A-S lab in Jacksonville receives specimens of suspected non-fatal overdoses submitted by our hospital partner. Each specimen is tested in depth for over 90 analytes, and the testing panel is regularly reviewed and updated by our chemists. The Biosurveillance team is actively seeking additional hospital partners to better represent the Florida population. If you are interested, reach out to the OD2A-S Surveillance Lead at OverdoseResponse@FLHealth.gov.