Pediatric opioid-related emergency visits offer critical opportunities for opioid safety screening and planning

[...]opioid-related ED visits reflect a wide variety of ED diagnoses including sickle cell pain, other pain syndromes, self-harm, accidental ingestions, and other concomitant intoxications. [...]because opioid use may affect a wider breadth of pediatric patients, opioid-associated screening and counseling may require a near universal approach, similar to pediatric vaccine or car seat screening. [...]urine/serum testing was not universally performed on patients to confirm the opioid associated with the visit. While opioid-associated ED visits are infrequent among pediatric patients, opioid-associated safety counseling and naloxone prescribing represent two areas for improvement in pediatric ED visits. Because adolescents may obtain opioids from leftover prescriptions, EM physicians and pediatric EM (PEM) physicians play a critical role in drug takeback programs, naloxone prescribing and counseling.