A Feasibility Study to Direct System Level Change for Hospital Patients With Alcohol Use Disorder

Area of Science:

• Addiction Medicine
• Behavioral Health
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a prevalent substance misuse issue.
• Effective interventions are needed to support patients with AUD during and after treatment.
• System-level changes can improve patient outcomes for AUD.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of a multi-component intervention for patients with AUD.
• To evaluate the impact of motivational interviewing (MI), tailored discharge education, and EMR flow sheets.
• To explore potential system-level changes for AUD management.

Main Methods:

• Feasibility study utilizing a descriptive exploratory design.
• Intervention included MI, tailored discharge education, and EMR flow sheet documentation.
• 14 patients with AUD recruited from medical-surgical floors over 3 months.
• Readiness and confidence rulers used to measure outcomes.

Main Results:

• EMR flow sheet documentation was successfully completed for all participants.
• Mean post-intervention readiness and confidence scores were 8.86 and 8.07, respectively.
• Readiness and confidence scores indicated patients were contemplating behavior change.

Conclusions:

• The intervention demonstrated effectiveness in increasing patient confidence for behavior change.
• A statistically significant increase in pre/post confidence scores was observed (p = .095).
• The findings suggest the intervention is feasible for AUD patients intending to change behavior.