Gene Troyan, director of operations at Butler Ambulance Service, said he could only speculate as to why the frequency of overdose calls has fallen from more than one a day last year to about one a week now.

Ambulance services don't know why they are getting called out to fewer drug overdoses this year than they did last year, but they are glad to see the trend.

Opioid overdose deaths are significantly down this year with 15 confirmed and eight cases in which the cause of death hasn't been confirmed.

“We're down 39 percent or more over this time last year,” said Jeffrey Kelly, chief of Cranberry Township Emergency Medical Services.

Township paramedics used Narcan 12 times to revive 12 different overdose patients from Jan. 1 through May 31 last year, but only five times during the same time period this year, he said.

“I don't really know what to attribute it to — education, more Narcan — but we're happy to see that those numbers are dropping. We've tried to stay out in front of it with resources and providing options to show people there are better choices and that there's another way,” Kelly said.

He said there is no pattern to the overdoses in the township.

“We don't have a drug area or drug houses. All of the overdoses we see are transient folks,” Kelly said. “There's no known address with multiple calls.”

The falling numbers haven't impacted operations or procedures because ambulances, as well as township police officers, continue to carry and administer Narcan, he said.

“We'll continue to give hope cards when Narcan is administered,” Kelly said.

Hope cards contain a list of agencies and organizations that can help people recover from addiction.

Gene Troyan, director of operations of Butler Ambulance Service, said he could only speculate as to why the frequency of overdose calls has fallen from more than one a day last year to about one a week now.

“That's a big drop in the numbers,” Troyan said.

He said the number of calls started falling off in November and has been way down since January.

“We don't know why. There are so many possibilities. More families have access to Narcan. Are they doing resuscitation that we don't know about? Is the potency of heroin decreased? We were dealing with fentanyl and carfentanil. Or is it education? Probably one of the three,” Troyan said.

He said families of addicts can get Narcan prescriptions and there are a lot of recovery programs and facilities available.

“I really hope that education has something to do with it also. There's a lot of programs and facilities that can help,” he said.

The reduction in call volume has helped alleviate stress among ambulance personnel and helped the company's bottom line. Medics respond to overdose calls and treat the patients, but most patients refuse to be taken to a hospital, he said.

“Most don't get transported. They refuse transport. The majority were no transport and no collecting of any money,” Troyan said. “That was quite a big cost for our company.”