Efforts go beyond treatment to recovery and ERs are increasingly offering patients who seek help for overdoses additional resources for drug addiction and recovery therapies.
The opioid epidemic presents in hospital emergency rooms in different ways. Addicts show up asking for prescription opioids for pain. Or patients who are overdosing on heroin and other opioids arrive for treatment.
Prescription monitoring programs and guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and others aim to limit unnecessary prescribing of opioid drugs.
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Now emergency rooms are developing programs to get patients help not only if they've overdosed, but also if they want addiction treatment. Boston Medical Center (BMC) last month announced the launch of its "Faster Paths to Treatment Opioid Urgent Care Center.
The effort, supported by a $2.9 million grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, "rapidly links patients to an enhanced and integrated system of addiction healthcare delivery through inpatient and outpatient treatment services, detoxification, and follow-up care," according to an announcement from BMC.
The program will involve intake triage, referrals to addiction treatment and primary care, overdose education, "naloxone rescue kits," as well as transportation and community support services.
BMC also offers medication treatment for "appropriate patients… After these patients are stabilized, they are enrolled in maintenance programs at their local community health centers or at BMC," according to the release.
In 2015, 1,379 people overdosed in Massachusetts. Boston Emergency Medical Services transported 2,601 patients with "narcotic issues" to area hospitals and nearly 37% of those patients went to BMC.
Other emergency room programs are emerging nationwide. Starting November 1, "recovery coaches" will be on call at the emergency room of SSM Health St. Mary Hospital in Madison, WI.
Under the voluntary program, patients treated for overdoses will be offered a meeting with a counselor, according to The Badger Herald, a student paper for The University of Wisconsin.
A July report from the National Governor's Association called for the establishment of "peer-based recovery programs in emergency departments." And others programs are coming on line.
In Manchester, NH, those in need of help can look to pre-hospital providers. The state's Safe Station program encourages those looking for help to go to any city fire station. Firefighters have been trained to connect addicts with support and services.