Expanding Rural Access to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Utilizing Medical Toxicologists and the Georgia Poison Center to Facilitate Emergency Department- and Telehealth-Based Medication Initiation and Linkage to Care

Summary

The overarching goal of this project is to increase the availability of OUD treatment in rural counties in the state of Georgia by using Emergency Department (ED)-based telehealth strategies to initiate MOUD and connect patients to treatment. The investigators will implement a novel collaboration between rural EDs, medical toxicologists at the Georgia Poison Center (GPC), peer recovery coaches (PRCs) and RCOs throughout Georgia to bridge the gap between OUD treatment need in rural EDs and specialty physician availability at the GPC. Research activities will be conducted during two broad phases, at three rural EDs in Georgia: planning and implementation. During the planning phase, aggregate data will be obtained to determine each ED's existing practices treating patients with OUD and opioid withdrawal. During the implementation phase, the researchers will prospectively study a poison center OUD consultation and PRC intervention as it is rolled out at each site, collecting participant-level data. Sites will be rolled into the implementation phase in a stepped-wedge fashion, so there will be times when some sites are in the planning phase while others are in the implementation phase.

Description

Eligibility

Age range

18+ years

Sex

All

Healthy volunteers

No

Interventions

• Behavioral
  Sociobehavioral Intervention

  Utilizes two primary evidence-based strategies: * Delivering OUD consultation via telemedicine, which has been demonstrated to be a safe and effective means for initiating MOUD with buprenorphine; and, * Incorporating psychosocial support in the form of PRC, whose involvement in patient care is associated with increased treatment retention and MOUD initiation.

Location