Dataset Information

Access to Office-Based Buprenorphine Treatment in Areas With High Rates of Opioid-Related Mortality: An Audit Study.

ABSTRACT: Background:Improving access to treatment for opioid use disorder is a national priority, but little is known about the barriers encountered by patients seeking buprenorphine-naloxone ("buprenorphine") treatment. Objective:To assess real-world access to buprenorphine treatment for uninsured or Medicaid-covered patients reporting current heroin use. Design:Audit survey ("secret shopper" study). Setting:6 U.S. jurisdictions with a high burden of opioid-related mortality (Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Ohio, and the District of Columbia). Participants:From July to November 2018, callers contacted 546 publicly listed buprenorphine prescribers twice, posing as uninsured or Medicaid-covered patients seeking buprenorphine treatment. Measurements:Rates of new appointments offered, whether buprenorphine prescription was possible at the first visit, and wait times. Results:Among 1092 contacts with 546 clinicians, schedulers were reached for 849 calls (78% response rate). Clinicians offered new appointments to 54% of Medicaid contacts and 62% of uninsured-self-pay contacts, whereas 27% of Medicaid and 41% of uninsured-self-pay contacts were offered an appointment with the possibility of buprenorphine prescription at the first visit. The median wait time to the first appointment was 6 days (interquartile range [IQR], 2 to 10 days) for Medicaid contacts and 5 days (IQR, 1 to 9 days) for uninsured-self-pay contacts. These wait times were similar regardless of clinician type or payer status. The median wait time from first contact to possible buprenorphine induction was 8 days (IQR, 4 to 15 days) for Medicaid and 7 days (IQR, 3 to 14 days) for uninsured-self-pay contacts. Limitation:The survey sample included only publicly listed buprenorphine prescribers. Conclusion:Many buprenorphine prescribers did not offer new appointments or rapid buprenorphine access to callers reporting active heroin use, particularly those with Medicaid coverage. Nevertheless, wait times were not long, implying that opportunities may exist to increase access by using the existing prescriber workforce. Primary Funding Source:National Institute on Drug Abuse.

SUBMITTER: Beetham T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7164610 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Access to Office-Based Buprenorphine Treatment in Areas With High Rates of Opioid-Related Mortality: An Audit Study.

Beetham Tamara T Saloner Brendan B Wakeman Sarah E SE Gaye Marema M Barnett Michael L ML

Annals of internal medicine 20190604 1

<h4>Background</h4>Improving access to treatment for opioid use disorder is a national priority, but little is known about the barriers encountered by patients seeking buprenorphine-naloxone ("buprenorphine") treatment.<h4>Objective</h4>To assess real-world access to buprenorphine treatment for uninsured or Medicaid-covered patients reporting current heroin use.<h4>Design</h4>Audit survey ("secret shopper" study).<h4>Setting</h4>6 U.S. jurisdictions with a high burden of opioid-related mortality ...[more]

PMID: 31158849

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Project description:CONTEXT: Although office-based opioid treatment with buprenorphine (OBOT-B) has been successfully implemented in primary care settings in the US, its use has not been reported in homeless patients. OBJECTIVE: To characterize the feasibility of OBOT-B in homeless relative to housed patients. DESIGN: A retrospective record review examining treatment failure, drug use, utilization of substance abuse treatment services, and intensity of clinical support by a nurse care manager (NCM) among homeless and housed patients in an OBOT-B program between August 2003 and October 2004. Treatment failure was defined as elopement before completing medication induction, discharge after medication induction due to ongoing drug use with concurrent nonadherence with intensified treatment, or discharge due to disruptive behavior. RESULTS: Of 44 homeless and 41 housed patients enrolled over 12 months, homeless patients were more likely to be older, nonwhite, unemployed, infected with HIV and hepatitis C, and report a psychiatric illness. Homeless patients had fewer social supports and more chronic substance abuse histories with a 3- to 6-fold greater number of years of drug use, number of detoxification attempts and percentage with a history of methadone maintenance treatment. The proportion of subjects with treatment failure for the homeless (21%) and housed (22%) did not differ (P = .94). At 12 months, both groups had similar proportions with illicit opioid use [Odds ratio (OR), 0.9 (95% CI, 0.5-1.7) P = .8], utilization of counseling (homeless, 46%; housed, 49%; P = .95), and participation in mutual-help groups (homeless, 25%; housed, 29%; P = .96). At 12 months, 36% of the homeless group was no longer homeless. During the first month of treatment, homeless patients required more clinical support from the NCM than housed patients. CONCLUSIONS: Despite homeless opioid dependent patients' social instability, greater comorbidities, and more chronic drug use, office-based opioid treatment with buprenorphine was effectively implemented in this population comparable to outcomes in housed patients with respect to treatment failure, illicit opioid use, and utilization of substance abuse treatment.

Project description:BackgroundOpioid-related mortality is high and increasing in the Western world, and interventions aimed at reducing opioid-related deaths represent an important area of study. In Skåne County, Sweden, a patient choice reform resulted in increased access to opioid substitution treatment (OST). In addition, a gradual shift towards less restrictive terms for exclusion from OST has been implemented. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of these policy changes on opioid-related deaths.MethodsDetailed data on opioid-related deaths in Skåne during the 2 years prior to and following the policy change were obtained from forensic records and from health care services. Data on overdose deaths for Skåne and the rest of Sweden were obtained using publicly available national register data. Time periods were used as the predictor for opioid-related deaths in the forensic data. The national level data were used in a natural experiment design in which rates of overdose deaths were compared between Skåne and the rest of Sweden before and after the intervention.ResultsThere was no significant difference in the number of deaths in Skåne between the data collection periods (RR: 1.18 95% CI:0.89-1.57, p= 0.251). The proportion of deaths among patients enrolled in OST increased between the two periods (2.61, 1.12-6.10, p= 0.026). There was no change in deaths related to methadone or buprenorphine in relation to deaths due to the other opioids included in the study (0.92, 0.51-1.63, p= 0.764). An analysis of national mortality data showed an annual relative decrease in unintentional drug deaths in Skåne compared to the rest of Sweden following the onset of the reform (0.90, 0.84-0,97, p= 0.004).ConclusionsOpioid-related deaths, as assessed using forensic data, has not changed significantly in Skåne following a change to lower-threshold OST. By contrast, national level data indicate that the policy change has been associated with decreased overdose deaths. The discrepancy between these results highlights the need for more research to elucidate this issue. The result that more patients die during ongoing OST following an increase in access to treatment underlines the need for further preventive interventions within the OST treatment setting.

Project description:BackgroundOpioid agonist therapy (OAT) has been shown to reduce mortality in patients with opioid use disorder (OUD), yet mortality in individuals receiving OAT remains higher than in an age- and gender-matched population.ObjectiveTo identify baseline risk factors in patients who engaged in buprenorphine treatment that are associated with this elevated risk of death.DesignWe performed a retrospective cohort study from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2018, using a centralized clinical data registry within a multi-hospital health system in Boston, MA, USA.ParticipantsAll adult patients who had ≥ 2 consecutive encounters with sublingual buprenorphine on the active medication list from January 1, 2007, to December 31, 2018.Main measuresWe abstracted several sociodemographic, clinical, and healthcare use characteristics from the clinical data registry. The primary outcome was all-cause mortality and the secondary outcome was opioid overdose-related mortality. We performed multivariable cox regression to identify baseline characteristics independently associated with these outcomes.Key resultsOf 5948 patients in the cohort, the majority were white (80.7%) and male (59.7%), with a mean age of 38.2 years. The all-cause mortality rate was 24.0 deaths per 1000 person-years. Baseline characteristics independently associated with an increased hazard of all-cause mortality included homelessness (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 1.39; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09, 1.78), an opioid on the active medication list (aHR = 1.28; 95% CI = 1.08, 1.52), and entry into the cohort during an inpatient hospitalization (aHR = 1.43; 95% CI = 1.18, 1.73). Homelessness was also associated with an increased hazard of opioid overdose-related mortality (aHR = 1.77; 95% CI = 1.25, 2.50).ConclusionsWe identified several novel and potentially modifiable predictors of mortality among patients engaging in buprenorphine treatment who remain at an increased risk of death compared with the general population. Understanding these risk factors can assist healthcare providers in risk stratification and inform the design of targeted interventions to improve outcomes in a high-risk patient population.

Dataset Information

Access to Office-Based Buprenorphine Treatment in Areas With High Rates of Opioid-Related Mortality: An Audit Study.

Publications

Access to Office-Based Buprenorphine Treatment in Areas With High Rates of Opioid-Related Mortality: An Audit Study.

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