Indivior, a global pharmaceutical company working to help change patients’ lives by pioneering life-transforming treatment for addiction and other serious mental illnesses, hosted a featured session at the Becker’s 14th Annual Meeting. The session titled, “A Population Health Approach to Opioid Use Disorder: Data-Centered Discussions of Best Demonstrated Practice at Essentia Health,” featured speakers Kelly Black, MA, and Jessica Schwartz, RN, CARN, from Duluth, Minnesota-headquartered Essentia Health. During the session, Ms. Black and Ms. Schwartz discussed the evolution of the opioid epidemic, as well as the importance of treating opioid use disorder (OUD) as a chronic disease through the lens of Essentia Health’s opioid and substance use disorder programs.
Four key takeaways were:
- OUD is a significant public health crisis. The opioid epidemic was designated as a public health emergency in 2017 and that designation was renewed in December 2023.1,2 Further, the cost of the opioid epidemic in the US was reported to be $1.5 trillion in 2020.3 "The opioid epidemic is continuing to get worse, with 5.6 million people who reported an OUD in 2021.4 We’re seeing more overdose fatalities each year," Ms. Black said.
- Low-barrier access to care is crucial in addressing OUD. These patients simply cannot wait four weeks for a primary care appointment." We need to make getting care easier than getting drugs," Ms. Schwartz said. "We really need to make it so patients can get a hold of us, make appointments, be seen when they need to be seen."
- Collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches are essential in treating OUD like a chronic disease. Because of the complexity of this problem, guidelines, standards, and partnerships are critical components of a solution. "We have an organizational and multidisciplinary committee structure," Ms. Black explained. "We also have an opioid oversight committee with subcommittees involving pharmacists, clinicians, nurses, nursing informatics, clinical education and community health teams. We partnered with shared services across our system, and we created standards-based guidelines."
- The stigma surrounding OUD must be addressed. "Often, people who use drugs believe they do not deserve to be treated with dignity," Ms. Schwartz said. "Stigma perpetuates feelings of fear and isolation. We need to create programming that not only addresses this epidemic but does so in a way that is respectful to the people we care for."
By addressing access and stigma through a multidisciplinary approach, 78% of OUD patients at Essentia Health received some form of medication for OUD in 2022, and the system is successfully connecting many rural Americans to evidence-based care. This underscores that innovative, collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches can make a difference in the treatment of a chronic disease, like OUD.
References:
1. Public Health Declaration for Opioids Crisis. Dept of Health and Human Services. 2017. Accessed May 2024. https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/Emergency/Downloads/October_26_2017_Public_Health_Declaration_for_Opioids_Crisis.pdf
2. Administration for Strategic Preparedness & Response. Renewal of Determination That a Public Health Emergency Exists. Published September 26, 2023. Accessed May 2024. https://aspr.hhs.gov/legal/PHE/Pages/Opioid-26Sept2023.aspx
3. Joint Economic Committee Democrats. The Economic Toll of the Opioid Crisis Reached Nearly $1.5 Trillion in 2020. Published September 2022. Accessed May 2024. https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/democrats/2022/9/jec-analysis-finds-opioid-epidemic-cost-u-s-nearly-1-5-trillion-in-2020
4. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States: Results From the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (HHS Publication No. PEP22-07-01-005, NSDUH Series H-57). Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, SAMHSA. 2022. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/report/2021-nsduh-annual-national-report
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