Substance Use Treatment and Recovery Team

In the past decade, hospitalizations for OUD nearly doubled. Patients admitted to the hospital with an underlying OUD rarely receive evidence-based treatment for OUD while hospitalized. MOUD is not commonly initiated in the hospital, and patients are seldom linked to outpatient treatment after discharge. Hospitalized patients with OUD who do not initiate MOUD or receive linkage to post-discharge treatment are at high-risk of continued misuse, delays in care, future overdose and costly readmission. This study identifies the inpatient hospital stay as a key opportunity to initiate MOUD and link patients with follow-up care for OUD.

The Substance Use Treatment and Recovery Team (START) is an intervention that adapts the principles of collaborative care to the hospital setting. Prior studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of collaborative care in outpatient settings for patients with opioid and alcohol use disorders, and a series of reports have demonstrated the feasibility and potential efficacy of hospital based consultative teams for substance use disorders. START uses team based, multi-faceted interventions (ie: motivational interviewing, medication treatment, OUD-focused discharge planning), measurement-based care, and patient registries to increase delivery of evidence-based care. The goal of START is to facilitate initiation of MOUD during the inpatient stay and link patients to appropriate post-discharge care.

The START study is a multi-site, randomized trial that will evaluate the intervention improves MOUD initiation and linkage to follow-up care among hospitalized patients with OUD. A total of 414 patients will be randomized from three geographically diverse hospitals (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, and Baystate Health in Springfield, Massachusetts) to receive either START or usual care, stratifying by prior MOUD exposure and site. The study builds on a pilot randomized controlled trial conducted at Cedars-Sinai by testing the intervention at three geographically distinct locations, thus increasing generalizability.

If the aims of the research are achieved, the investigators will learn whether this model of care increases OUD treatment delivery in general medical hospitals, and decreases the downstream effects of untreated OUD. If effective, this translational model also can be used to increase uptake of evidence-based practices for other substance use and behavioral health disorders.