Every shift she works in the emergency department of the University of Kansas Hospital, Dr. Pam Hite sees the consequences of methamphetamine use and addiction.

“Mostly chest pains, shortness of breath, things related to smoking … jitteriness, occasional pain,” Hite said, reciting a litany of meth-caused symptoms she sees in emergency patients at the Kansas City, Kan., hospital.

Most times, she said, meth users don’t want to admit they’ve been using the drug, making it harder for doctors to give proper treatment.

“Meth,” she said, “tends to be a complicator of things we manage.”

• Testimony about the Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project
• Kansas Methamphetamine Prevention Project
• Kansas methamphetamine statistics

It might be complicating the entire health system. The National Association of Counties reported this week that 73 percent of hospitals had seen a rise in methamphetamine-related emergency room visits during the last five years.

The percentage was lower in Kansas: Just 43 percent of hospitals here said they had seen a similar rise. But 47 percent of state hospitals said methamphetamine was the top illicit drug problem they saw in emergency rooms; no other drug was close.

During the same period, according to statistics collected by the Kansas Hospital Assn., the number of drug-related hospitalizations in the state skyrocketed – from 785 in 2000 to 1,217 in 2004.

Cindy Samuelson, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Hospital Assn., said that’s a burden on Kansas hospitals.

“The cost of caring for individuals who are under the influence of drugs is always high because those folks are very often uninsured,” Samuelson said.

So far, one doctor said, the problem doesn’t seem to have spread to Lawrence.

“I rarely see it here,” said Dr. Brian Hunt, an emergency physician at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

At KU, Hite said, methamphetamine had replaced crack cocaine as the biggest problem drug among patients in the emergency room.

“I would not say we’re seeing more patients with drug abuse. It’s just a shift in what people are using,” she said.

But methamphetamine, she said, might be more intractable than crack.

“It’s a big problem. It’s probably more addictive than crack,” Hite said. “There is no medical detox for methamphetamine; it’s horrendously difficult to get people off of.”