Northwell offers new help against opioid epidemic at its emergency departments

NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y., May 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwell Health today announced its new "Pathways to Recovery" program, unveiling a more-effective tool in its emergency departments (ED) in response to the opioid and substance use epidemic. Instead of simply reviving, stabilizing and discharging people who come in because of an overdose, this program will allow clinical team members at Northwell's 18 emergency departments to provide a set of critical interventions that can put patients on the road to recovery from opioid use disorder.

Providing services in EDs to those struggling with substance use disorder is the latest initiative in Northwell's robust campaign addressing the opioid epidemic. "Health care providers talk about the golden hour – the critical time after an accident or trauma when the right care can make all the difference," said John D'Angelo, MD, senior vice president and executive director of the emergency medicine service line at Northwell Health, who spearheaded the adoption of opioid-focused interventions throughout the health system's emergency departments. "There's a similar golden opportunity when someone comes into the emergency department for treatment of an overdose. Providing the services that are needed at that decisive moment is a key step in stemming the opioid epidemic."

The Pathways to Recovery program will roll out in phases to all of Northwell's 18 emergency departments. It includes:

• Universal screening: Emergency department clinical teams use the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) protocol with every willing patient who comes to an ED. SBIRT is a structured set of questions that helps health care professionals identify patients' risk of substance use disorder, assess their readiness for change and, if willing, navigate them to treatment.
• Overdose prevention and protection: With Northwell's NAL-SAT (naloxone saturation) campaign, health care professionals educate patients, and their families and friends, on how to prevent, recognize and respond to an opioid overdose. Those who are at high risk of experiencing or witnessing an overdose are also provided with a naloxone rescue kit, free of charge. (Kits are supplied through a partnership with New York State's Department of Health.) Naloxone is a medication that rapidly reverses an overdose by knocking the opioid off its receptors in the brain. The rescue kits include nasal spray misters that automatically release the right dose of the antidote.
• Medications for addiction treatment (MAT): For some patients who are ready, the emergency department team initiates treatment with buprenorphine, an FDA-approved medication shown to aid in recovery from opioid use disorder by reducing symptoms of withdrawal and cutting cravings. Ongoing treatment with buprenorphine allows patients to benefit from counseling and behavioral therapies.
• Navigation to sustained care: For patients agreeable to addiction treatment, emergency departments will link them with an external "navigator" from Project Connect, a program developed in collaboration with Central Nassau Guidance & Counseling Services (CN Guidance) in Hicksville. These navigators come to the emergency department to support patients as they start on a pathway toward ongoing treatment, accompany them to treatment facilities and provide long-term navigation, advocacy and assistance. Having a relationship with a navigator can help patients who might otherwise fall through the cracks, finding it too difficult to connect to or continue with ongoing care.
• Streamlining transfer and stabilization: Some patients who require a bridge from the emergency department to longer-term care will be assisted through a collaboration between Northwell, the Nassau County District Attorney's office and New Hope, an OASAS-licensed crisis stabilization center in Freeport. When patients need stabilization, short-term shelter, and navigation to further treatment, team members from New Hope are invited into the ED to meet them and transport them back to that specialized facility.  

SBIRT is in use in 14 of Northwell's 18 emergency departments, and NAL-SAT has been implemented in 16, including the pediatric ED at Cohen Children's Medical Center in New Hyde Park. Team members using SBIRT have screened more than 765,000 people at Northwell EDs, and have dispensed 3,246 rescue kits via NAL-SAT. Medication for addiction treatment is available at four EDs, and has been provided to nearly 40 patients since that initiative was piloted last July.

Project Connect launched last year and has assisted 230 patients from three EDs. In March, Northwell and CN Guidance were awarded a $350,000 grant from New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services to support their ED-based MAT initiation and external navigation services. Northwell will use $200,000 of the funding to educate personnel in these approaches and expand the program to additional EDs. The remaining portion of the grant will be used by CN Guidance to hire more staff to serve as navigators.

"With the Pathways to Recovery program, we are treating opioid use disorder with the same commitment and seriousness with which we approach other chronic diseases – and most importantly, with the same sense of compassion and empathy," said Sandeep Kapoor, MD, director of Northwell's SBIRT program. "When patients with heart disease or diabetes come to the emergency department, we don't just treat their crisis and send them on their way – we offer options and connect them to the support they need to manage their condition. This program allows us to give patients with opioid use disorder that same level of care."

About Northwell Health
Northwell Health is New York State's largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, about 750 outpatient facilities and more than 13,600 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Our 69,000 employees – 16,000-plus nurses and 4,000 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We're making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We're training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Graduate Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties, visit Northwell.edu.

Contact:         
Lisa Davis
205-542-8053
[email protected]

SOURCE Northwell Health

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