A Hospital-Based Intervention to Improve Access to Buprenorphine for Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is often under-addressed in hospitalized patients. In the absence of formal addiction consult services, volunteer physician-led models can increase access to inpatient OUD treatment. This paper describes a novel, volunteer physician-led interprofessional approach to identifying patients with OUD, initiating buprenorphine, and linking to office-based opioid treatment.

The intervention took place from April 2018 to August 2020 at a large, urban, tertiary care center and teaching hospital in New York, NY that does not have an addiction consult service. Hospitalized patients with OUD were identified by provider-driven referrals or an automated daily patient list generated by a bioinformatics search algorithm. Eligible patients with OUD were started on buprenorphine during their hospitalization and linked to primary care-based buprenorphine treatment. Patients were followed longitudinally via chart review to assess follow-up clinic rates at >30 days, >60 days, >90 days, >6 months, >12 months, and >24 months after discharge.

Over a 2-year period, 178 patients were evaluated, 88 were eligible for inpatient buprenorphine, and 47 were started on buprenorphine while hospitalized. Sixty-seven patients were referred to a post-discharge visit at a primary care practice, 29 (43%) of whom attended an appointment at least 30 days after discharge. Of these, 22 (76%) returned at >60 days and 20 (69%) at 6 months. At the 1-year time point, 16 of a possible 17 patients (94%) and 15 of a possible 16 patients (94%) were still engaged in care at 2 years.

This intervention represents a proof of principle, adaptable model for identifying patients with OUD and engaging patients in primary care-based buprenorphine treatment. Limitations to consider include the sustainability of a volunteer-based initiative and that retention rates for 1 to 2 years post-discharge may be more indicative of the strengths of office-based opioid treatment itself as opposed to in-hospital engagement and the intervention.