SC DHEC launches new tool focused on tackling overdose deaths

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — In 2022 alone, almost 2,300 South Carolinians died of drug overdoses.

The past decade has seen an increase every year in the number of deaths.

“We wanted to find a way to present this date in a realtime way which is why we created this dashboard,” said Chelsea Townsend, DHEC’s prescription monitoring program director. 

The dashboard refers to a new online tool launched by DHEC called the Prescription Monitoring Program.

“It’s an informational tool that leads to better care of individuals and better oversight of prescription medications being dispensed,” said DAODAS director Sara Goldsby. “Also, as medical professionals can see how their prescriptions relate to the prescribers, they tend to make adjustments in their own practice patterns.”

“A member of the public can also use this data to better understand the severity of the problem in their community or area,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, DHEC director.

The prescription drug dashboard breaks down drug overdose data by county which is broken down by three particular controlled substances : opioids, benzos and stimulants. The information can be found on DHEC’s website.

While prescriptions of benzos and opioids for treatment of pain have gone down, the data shows an increase of 7 percent in another category. 

“Stimulants are on the rise of being prescribed to our citizens at higher rates than we were seeing before 2020,” Goldsby said.

Of the almost 23 hundred overdose deaths in South Carolina in 2022, 96 percent were accidental and 72 percent involved fentanyl which can be detected using a test strip.

“To ensure that fentanyl, which is often fatal in small amounts, is not contained in the substance and they don’t know it,” Simmer said. “We are doing a number of things to try to reduce the impact of drugs in our state.”

Check out the dashboard here.