A Buprenorphine Retention Report to Measure Opioid Use Disorder Care Metrics and Guide Outreach

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Informatics
• Addiction Medicine

Background:

• Rising opioid overdose rates necessitate improved systems for monitoring opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment quality.
• Retention in care is a key metric for OUD treatment, but definitions vary, and real-time data access is limited for clinics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement a Structured Query Language (SQL)-based reporting tool for real-time monitoring of buprenorphine retention.
• To characterize buprenorphine retention metrics within an urban community health center network.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective observational study was conducted.
• A SQL-based reporting tool was designed to provide real-time and summative metrics for buprenorphine retention.
• Data were analyzed for patients initiated on buprenorphine between June 2020 and June 2022.

Main Results:

• Out of 569 patients, 17% remained actively engaged, 3% recently engaged, and 80% disengaged by June 2023.
• A significant portion of disengagement (55.4%) occurred within 3 or fewer prescriptions.
• Actively engaged patients had a median care duration of 26.8 months and 77.2% days covered by buprenorphine prescription.

Conclusions:

• The implemented SQL report provides real-time, detailed buprenorphine retention data.
• This tool has enabled the clinic network to guide targeted patient outreach and improve care quality.