Abstract
Each day, across America, people come to emergency service providers in need of care and support. Although not ideal, emergency departments have become the de facto outpatient treatment center in many communities. This positions emergency department providers to be ideal partners in the treatment of substance use disorders. Substance use and deaths by overdose have been of great concern for many years, and since the start of the pandemic, the trends have caused further concern. Drug overdoses have claimed the lives of more than 932 000 Americans over the past 21 years. Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of premature death in the United States. In 2020, of people identified as needing substance use treatment in the past year, only 1.4% received any treatment. As we watch the death tolls and cost of care continue to trend upward, emergency service providers have the unique opportunity to quickly screen, intervene, and refer to help get these complex and sometimes challenging patients better care, while also avoiding the worsening of the crisis in which we find ourselves.