Primary Submission Category: Health behaviors
Reducing the Impacts of the Opioid Crisis on the Behavioral Health Underserved Population
Authors: Jenny Bernard Victor Carrillo Jazmin Cascante Chinwe Ogedegbe
Presenting Author: Jenny Bernard*
Substance Use Disorder (SUD) produces significant harm to patients; as a medical condition that does not discriminate (CDC, 2022; Fine et al., 2020). Unsurprisingly, the USA polysubstance and opioid crisis continues to claim many lives. The catastrophic economic ramifications of overdoses and the cost of opioid misuse exceed $78.5 billion (Luo et al., 2021; Stein et al., 2020). To make matters worse, health inequities disproportionately impact underserved communities struggling with SUD. As a result, a large healthcare network has invested in finding solutions to best meet the needs of this patient population. A Transitions of Care (TOC) program was created to provide comprehensive Behavioral Health (BH) care and community referrals at 10 different Acute Care Hospitals. The program offers care coordination, transportation, medications, discharge phone calls, equipment, etc. A fishbone diagram was used to visualize brainstorming ideas and examine cause-and-effect relationships. The information was also used to develop an improvement plan to address identified needs. Findings: Demographics: 687 patients (463 males, 220 females, and 4 transgender), ages ranged between 20 and 60 years old, and races included Black, White, and Hispanic. The McNemar Test determined a statistically significant difference between the readmission rates of patients not enrolled in the TOC program and those that were enrolled. The readmission rate for those not enrolled was 26%, and for those enrolled was 16% with a P<0.005. Several obstacles were overcome, including leadership engagement, trust, and resource management. This project can be duplicated by following the workflow shared in this model. A strategic plan focused on utilizing savings from readmission prevention penalties to sustain improvement made will be discussed. Communities can flourish when targeted interventions are implemented.