System-wide addiction services

Substance use disorder (SUD) complicates recovery and overall well-being for every condition – from heart disease and chronic pain to a cancer diagnosis or a mental health disorder. That’s why at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, our system-wide addiction services programs ensure that every patient has access to evidence-based addiction support from our dedicated team of substance use disorder experts, no matter where they enter our hospital system. The program aims to increase initiation of treatment for SUD, creating more pathways for patients to achieve ongoing recovery.

Because people of every age, culture and socioeconomic status across the central Ohio community could be negatively impacted by a substance use disorder, our providers from multiple backgrounds weave addiction treatment into every layer of care. This ensures that anyone struggling with substance use can receive timely screening, intervention and ongoing support across clinical settings in our emergency departments, inpatient hospitals and outpatient clinics.

What do our system-wide addiction treatments include?

Using evidence-based interventions, our Addiction Medicine Services team collaborates to provide diagnoses, harm reduction techniques and seamless care for substance use disorder that addresses both physical and behavioral health.

Our services incorporate many types of learners, including our Addiction Medicine fellows, resident physicians, pharmacy residents, advanced practice provider students and social work students.

Emergency department addiction medicine

Substance use disorder treatment is available to everyone treated at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center emergency departments (EDs). Our ED Addiction Medicine Consult Service is a partnership with The Ohio State University College of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine, and it includes trained specialists available to engage with patients on-site. Specialists include advanced practice providers, social workers and peer recovery supporters who are embedded in the emergency care setting. Together, these addiction experts provide assessment, medication, education and referrals to treatment during medical emergencies.

Services include:

• Comprehensive SUD assessments
• Medications for addiction treatment and management of withdrawal symptoms
• Peer recovery support
• Harm reduction strategies, such as fentanyl test strips and naloxone
• Immediate referrals to substance use disorder treatment

Inpatient addiction medicine consult service

Addiction medicine services are available in all our inpatient hospitals through a collaboration between hospital medicine and psychiatry. Consultations with our specialized teams are available to any hospitalized patient to address substance use disorders alongside complex medical conditions, which often are a consequence of unmanaged substance use.

The Mohamed A. Kandeh Addiction Medicine Consult Service, named after the first social worker on the Addiction Medicine Services team, is based at our main campus and overseen by Hospital Medicine attending physicians who have additional training in addiction medicine. East Hospital Addiction Medicine Consult Service is staffed by physicians from the Department of Psychiatry. Both teams include advanced practice providers, social workers and peer recovery supporters, who will provide assessment, medication management, level of care recommendations and referrals, harm reduction education and recovery support strategies. This multidisciplinary team approach helps ensure that patients receive medical, psychosocial and recovery support while hospitalized that also informs a plan for their recovery after discharge.

Patient-Centered Advocacy and Medicine Clinic

The Patient-Centered Advocacy and Medicine (PCAM) clinic supports patients with SUD in the primary care setting, and is operated by our Division of General Internal Medicine. This makes addiction treatment an accessible and integrated part of ongoing medical care. Staffed by addiction-trained physicians, a psychotherapist and a pharmacist, PCAM provides assessment and management of substance use in alignment with patients’ individual health goals.

Care coordination

Our care coordinators stay connected with patients after their hospital discharge and outside of their provider appointments until they feel confident accessing addiction treatment services on their own. Care coordinators arrange and remind patients of upcoming appointments, discuss options for care in the community and address ongoing barriers to accessing treatment services.

Peer recovery support

Recovery is most powerful when it’s shared. Peer recovery supporters (PRS) are individuals with lived experience of addiction and sustained recovery. They play a vital role in bridging the gap between clinical treatment and real-world healing by combining the lived experience of addiction struggles with special training on engaging, supporting and assisting substance use disorder patients.

Our PRS work throughout our emergency departments, hospitals and treatment centers to connect to patients at critical times in their recovery journeys. Because they’ve walked that same road, peers can often build trust in ways that traditional health care providers cannot.