New York City-based NYC Health + Hospitals now offers buprenorphine at adult medicine clinics in 18 community and hospital-based ambulatory care centers across the city, the health system annouced Nov. 1.
The health system already offered buprenorphine at its emergency departments, inpatient care settings and specialty outpatient clinics. The 18 outpatient clinics will now integrate buprenorphine treatment into primary care to further boost access to the drug.
Each clinic is staffed by a specially-trained clinician who is licensed to authorize buprenorphine prescriptions.
"NYC Health + Hospitals sees approximately 20,000 unique patients with opioid use disorder every year, many of whom aren't ready to enter into a substance treatment program," Mitchell Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said in a press release. "Empowering primary care providers to play a greater role in connecting patients to care for opioid addiction is a useful strategy since these are the clinicians most likely to have ongoing relationships with these patients."
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