HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania's deadly opioid crisis continues to ravage cities and rural areas alike.
The most recent available data from the CDC shows 5,168 Pennsylvanian's died from overdoses in 2021, an average of 14 per day.
Meanwhile, healthcare professionals, meeting with lawmakers in Harrisburg on Thursday, said state regulations are holding them back.
"In the midst of an overdose death crisis, we'll take the risk that you might die on the street, rather than go outside a staff-to-patient ratio that was seemingly pulled out of thin air decades ago," said Jason Snyder, director of substance use disorder treatment services at the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association.
The Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs requires addiction treatment facilities to maintain a 1-to-35 patient-to-staff ratio.
This, as providers struggle to find adequate staffing, unable to keep up with rising wages.
"I have four counselor vacancies that I have been trying to fill since the end of last year," said Jason Wolford, director of outpatient services at Cen-Clear. "Under the 1 to 35 staffing ratio that the regulations permit me to function under, that is 140 consumers that I cannot see."
The beds are there, experts said, but many programs, especially in rural areas, can't retain addiction counselors.
"Rural areas, at baseline, have inequities in terms of their ability to pay higher amounts and oftentimes people just physically don't want to go to a rural area to do work," said Dr. Asif Ilyas, president of the Rothman Opioid Foundation.
It means they're forced to turn patients away, even as more calls for help pour in.
"Just this morning, I reached out to one of my intake departments. In one of my regions alone, since Jan. 1 of 2023, I have received 726 referrals for services," Wolford added.
Healthcare providers hope lawmakers will consider a temporary or permanent change to the staffing ratio, allowing them to provide life-saving care to hundreds more across the state.