Recruiting opioid treatment program administrators for a national survey: Outcomes and lessons learned

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Access to opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment, particularly methadone, is insufficient globally and in the US.
• Recent US policy changes aim to improve access to evidence-based methadone treatment.
• Evaluating the implementation of these changes requires a national, representative sample of opioid treatment programs (OTPs).

Purpose of the Study:

• To report the outcomes of a recruitment effort for a national sample of OTP administrators.
• To assess the feasibility of obtaining a representative sample for evaluating policy impact on methadone treatment access.

Main Methods:

• A stratified random sample of 1000 OTPs was selected from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) directory.
• Stratification considered state regulations and county opioid overdose rates; ineligible OTPs (tribal, correctional, corporate) were excluded.
• Researchers attempted to contact administrators via phone to obtain email addresses for study recruitment.

Main Results:

• Of 885 eligible OTPs, administrators were reached at 23% of clinics.
• Of administrators reached, 77% agreed to receive information, and 22% completed the survey.
• Recruitment involved 276.5 caller hours and cost $5530.

Conclusions:

• Recruitment outcomes for US OTP administrators were suboptimal despite a rigorous sampling frame and significant effort.
• Innovative strategies are essential to improve administrator recruitment for OUD treatment research.
• Recommendations include updating the SAMHSA directory with administrator contact details and refining outreach methods.