How Patient Centered Are Addiction Treatment Intake Processes?

Area of Science:

• Addiction Medicine
• Health Services Research
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Substance use disorder (SUD) treatment research has focused on matching patients to care but less on the patient experience during intake.
• Patient-centeredness and satisfaction are crucial for effective treatment engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) criteria and computer-facilitated assessments on patient experience and centeredness during SUD treatment intake.
• To compare patient experiences between ASAM-based and non-ASAM-based intake assessments.

Main Methods:

• A natural experiment in California involving 851 Medi-Cal patients at 33 SUD treatment providers.
• Surveys assessed patient experiences and perceptions of intake assessments.
• Inverse-probability weighting was used to control for patient mix differences across non-ASAM, ASAM, and computerized-ASAM groups.

Main Results:

• Patients undergoing ASAM-based or computerized ASAM assessments reported a more patient-centered intake process.
• Patients receiving ASAM-based assessments expressed higher satisfaction with their chosen treatment setting.

Conclusions:

• ASAM criteria and computer-facilitated assessments enhance patient-centeredness and satisfaction in SUD treatment intake.
• Findings support the adoption of ASAM or similar criteria, particularly as Medicaid programs increasingly implement them.
• Future research should explore links between patient-centered assessments and treatment retention/outcomes.