A hospital-wide initiative to redesign substance use disorder care: Impact on pharmacotherapy initiation.

Background: Substance use disorder (SUD) treatment in general medical settings remains underutilized. We evaluated 5 years of a hospital-wide SUD initiative which included an inpatient addiction consult team (ACT), low-threshold Bridge Clinic, recovery coaches, and office-based addiction treatment (OBAT) nurses. Methods: Naturalistic registry study. We calculated frequencies of patient contacts, types of substance use diagnoses, and medication treatment initiation and duration. Results: From 2014 to 2019, 7,036 unique patients were seen, including 4,959 by ACT, 1,197 in Bridge Clinic, 2,250 by a recovery coach, and 979 by an OBAT nurse. The median age was 47, 31% were women, 80% were white, 7% were black, 6% were Hispanic/Latinx, and 25% were experiencing homelessness. Alcohol use disorder was seen in 62%, opioid use disorder in 54%, cocaine use disorder in 29%, benzodiazepine use disorder in 14%, and stimulant use disorder in 7%. Co-occurring medical and psychiatric illnesses were common; 35% had hepatitis C, 59% depression, 66% anxiety, and 13% schizophrenia. 1,623 patients received a prescription for buprenorphine during the study period (42% of patients with OUD), 877 for oral naltrexone, and 163 for extended-release naltrexone. The mean length of continuous treatment was 178.4 days for buprenorphine, 47.7 days for oral naltrexone, and 1.29 injections for extended-release naltrexone. Conclusion: A hospital SUD initiative effectively initiated SUD pharmacotherapy with naltrexone and buprenorphine. Medication treatment episodes were longer with buprenorphine.

Community Care in Reach: Mobilizing Harm Reduction and Addiction Treatment Services for Vulnerable Populations.

Opioid overdoses killed 47,600 people in the United States in 2017. Despite increasing availability of office-based addiction treatment programs, the prevalence of opioid overdose is historically high and disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, including people experiencing homelessness. Despite availability of effective treatment, many at greatest risk of death from overdose experience myriad barriers to care. Launched in 2018, the Community Care in Reach mobile health initiative uses a data-driven approach to bring harm reduction and medication for opioid use disorder directly to those at highest risk of near-term death. Proof-of-concept results suggest that mobile addiction services may serve as a model for expanding access to addiction care for the most vulnerable.

High Seroprevalence of Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Chelsea, Massachusetts.

SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing allows quantitative determination of disease prevalence, which is especially important in high-risk communities. We performed anonymized convenience sampling of 200 currently asymptomatic residents of Chelsea, the epicenter of COVID-19 illness in Massachusetts, by BioMedomics SARS-CoV-2 combined IgM-IgG point-of-care lateral flow immunoassay. The seroprevalence was 31.5% (17.5% IgM+IgG+, 9.0% IgM+IgG-, and 5.0% IgM-IgG+). Of the 200 participants, 50.5% reported no symptoms in the preceding 4 weeks, of which 24.8% (25/101) were seropositive, and 60% of these were IgM+IgG-. These data are the highest seroprevalence rates observed to date and highlight the significant burden of asymptomatic infection.

Successful implementation of an alcohol-withdrawal pathway in a general hospital.

BACKGROUND: Although alcohol use and abuse are common among general-hospital inpatients, many patients are inadequately assessed and treated for alcohol withdrawal. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the implementation of a clinical pathway for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal in medical inpatients would result in improvements in clinical practice and patient outcomes. METHOD: Authors retrospectively reviewed 80 patient records (including 40 of those treated before the implementation of a pathway and 40 of those treated after pathway implementation). RESULTS: Assessment procedures and ordering patterns of physicians (medical house staff and staff physicians) shifted in a fashion consistent with the new treatment guidelines. Patient outcomes (e.g., length of stay and the incidence of delirium) improved for those patients who received benzodiazepines within the range of the pathway guidelines. CONCLUSIONS: Timely assessment and staff education can shift prescription patterns, increase patient monitoring, and reduce costs associated with alcohol withdrawal.