A new report published by Essential Hospitals Institute details how nine essential hospitals enhanced efforts to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) with social medicine through a grant-funded learning collaborative.
Transforming Care: Insights from Social Medicine in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment highlights how targeting the social, economic, and environmental factors that affect health can improve the successful treatment of OUD. It unpacks strategies for screening and intervention, common challenges and strategies for managing social needs, and methods of measuring success.
From October 2023 to October 2024, collaborative members attended monthly virtual trainings focused on managing social needs, reducing stigma about OUD care, engaging and retaining patients experiencing hardships in care, lowering impediments to care and harm reduction, and gaining organizational support for social medicine intervention. The group also attended a full-day, in-person training at Amos House, a nonprofit agency providing food, social services, employment, and job training to people who are unhoused, unemployed, and experiencing poverty in Rhode Island.
This report features programs from:
- Alameda Health System
- Bergen New Bridge Medical Center
- Chesapeake Regional Medical Center
- Parkland Health
- Tampa General Hospital
- Temple University Hospital
- The MetroHealth System
- UMass Memorial Health
- UVA Health
The collaborative detailed in the report is the second of three the Institute will convene under this project.
Author