Twelve major hospitals in Boston and Cambridge, Mass., on July 16 pledged to implement mandatory physician training on addiction care as part of a new consortium, reports The Boston Globe.
The consortium comprises presidents and CEOs from the following healthcare organizations:
- Boston Medical Center Health System
- Brigham Health (Boston)
- Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital (Boston)
- Tufts Medical Center (Boston)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)
- New England Baptist Hospital (Boston)
- Cambridge Health Alliance
- Mt. Auburn Hospital (Cambridge)
- Boston Children's Hospital
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Boston)
- Carney Hospital (Boston)
- St. Elizabeth's Medical Center (Brighton, Mass.)
Over the next year, the organizations will conduct mandatory one-hour training courses for hospital-employed physicians and "strongly encourage" affiliated physicians to participate. Hospital leaders also vowed to increase the number of physicians certified to prescribe buprenorphine and implement at least three measures to help employees with opioid use disorder.
Hospital leaders shared their pledge in conjunction with the release of a new survey, which found only 25 percent of providers received addiction training in medical school.
For more information on the hospitals' pledge, click here.