Development of a Hospital-Based Contingency Management Intervention

Contingency management (CM), an evidence-based strategy that utilizes a reward-based system as positive reinforcement, has been most robustly studied in the outpatient setting, but also has the potential to improve hospital care for patients with stimulant use disorder. The hospital is a challenging environment for people who use drugs. Conflicts with staff often result from in-hospital substance use, prolonged time off the unit, and missing medications, leading to negative health outcomes and re-admissions. By relying on positive rewards to encourage positive health behaviors, CM has the potential to improve staff-patient relationships, healthcare engagement, and reduce substance use in the hospital. Stimulant use disorder is especially difficult to address in the hospital due to a lack of medications that can support cravings and withdrawal symptoms. However, little is known about CM implementation in hospitals and the hospital setting may introduce unique challenges.

The objective of this study is to adapt an outpatient mobile app-based CM intervention to the hospital setting to understand the feasibility and acceptability of a hospital-based CM intervention to improve health outcomes in hospitalized patients with substance use disorders. We'll achieve this objective through following specific aims: Aim 1: Identify adaptations needed to implement an evidence-based outpatient mobile-app based CM intervention to the hospital setting for hospitalized patients with substance use disorders. Aim 2: Determine the feasibility, including facilitators and barriers, of implementing a mobile app-based CM intervention in the hospital setting. Aim 3: Assess the acceptability of a mobile app-based hospital-based CM intervention to patients and staff.