Hospitals and health care professionals have been hard at work fighting back against the opioid overdose crisis and want to inform New Yorkers on what to do if they’re around someone who is experiencing a potential overdose.  

According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, overdose deaths increased by 12% from 2021 to 2022. Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and has been detected in 81% of drug overdose deaths in New York City.  

“What we’re finding is the synthetic opioids that are out there now are responsible for 80% of the current deaths from fentanyl overdoses,” said Bill Howe, assistant vice president of emergency medical services for New York City Health + Hospitals.  

Maimonides Health is looking to bring awareness to the epidemic and ensure their staff is trained if they ever come face-to-face with a life-or-death overdose situation.  

Three simple steps to apply Narcan can make all the difference – open the package, insert it into the nostril, and press the red button to administer the medication to the patients. 

Health officials say that when Narcan is administered to still take that person to the hospital immediately.