TY - JOUR AU - M. A. Incze AU - S. L. Sehgal AU - A. Hansen AU - L. Garcia AU - L. Stolebarger A1 - AB - BACKGROUND: Care transitions represent vulnerable events for patients newly initiating medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Multidisciplinary primary care-based transition clinics may improve care linkage and retention in MOUD treatment. Additionally, these interventions may help primary care clinicians (PCPs) overcome barriers to adopting MOUD into practice. In this evaluation, we assessed the impact of a primary care-based transition clinic for patients newly initiating buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) in the emergency department. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective program evaluation within a single academic health system involving adults who newly initiated buprenorphine for OUD through an emergency department-based program and were referred to follow up in either a dedicated multidisciplinary primary care-based transition clinic (SPARC) vs referral to usual primary care (UPC). We performed descriptive analyses comparing patient demographics, referral volume, linkage to care, treatment retention, and markers of high-quality care between the 2 groups. A log-rank test was used to determine the difference in probabilities of retention between SPARC and UPC over 6 months. RESULTS: Over 12 months, the number of referrals to SPARC was greater than to UPC (N = 64 vs N = 26). About 58% of patients referred to SPARC attended an initial visit vs 38% referred to UPC. Treatment retention was consistently greater in SPARC than UPC (1 m: 90% vs 60%; 3 m: 76% vs 40%; 6 m: 60% vs 30%). Markers of care quality including naloxone provision (100% vs 80%) and infectious screening (81% vs 40%) were greater in SPARC clinic. SPARC was associated with a statistically significant increased probability of retention in treatment as compared to UPC (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: In this observational evaluation, a primary care-based multidisciplinary transition clinic for patients initiating buprenorphine MOUD was associated with expanded access to longitudinal OUD treatment and superior linkage to care, retention in care, and quality of care compared to referral to usual primary care. Further research using a more rigorous research design is required to further evaluate these findings. AD - Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.;Program for Addiction Research, Clinical Care, Knowledge, and Advocacy (PARCKA), University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.;Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. AN - 37675904 BT - Subst Abus C5 - Opioids & Substance Use DA - Sep 7 DO - 10.1177/08897077231188592 DP - NLM ET - 20230907 JF - Subst Abus LA - eng N2 - BACKGROUND: Care transitions represent vulnerable events for patients newly initiating medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). Multidisciplinary primary care-based transition clinics may improve care linkage and retention in MOUD treatment. Additionally, these interventions may help primary care clinicians (PCPs) overcome barriers to adopting MOUD into practice. In this evaluation, we assessed the impact of a primary care-based transition clinic for patients newly initiating buprenorphine for opioid use disorder (OUD) in the emergency department. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective program evaluation within a single academic health system involving adults who newly initiated buprenorphine for OUD through an emergency department-based program and were referred to follow up in either a dedicated multidisciplinary primary care-based transition clinic (SPARC) vs referral to usual primary care (UPC). We performed descriptive analyses comparing patient demographics, referral volume, linkage to care, treatment retention, and markers of high-quality care between the 2 groups. A log-rank test was used to determine the difference in probabilities of retention between SPARC and UPC over 6 months. RESULTS: Over 12 months, the number of referrals to SPARC was greater than to UPC (N = 64 vs N = 26). About 58% of patients referred to SPARC attended an initial visit vs 38% referred to UPC. Treatment retention was consistently greater in SPARC than UPC (1 m: 90% vs 60%; 3 m: 76% vs 40%; 6 m: 60% vs 30%). Markers of care quality including naloxone provision (100% vs 80%) and infectious screening (81% vs 40%) were greater in SPARC clinic. SPARC was associated with a statistically significant increased probability of retention in treatment as compared to UPC (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: In this observational evaluation, a primary care-based multidisciplinary transition clinic for patients initiating buprenorphine MOUD was associated with expanded access to longitudinal OUD treatment and superior linkage to care, retention in care, and quality of care compared to referral to usual primary care. Further research using a more rigorous research design is required to further evaluate these findings. PY - 2023 SN - 0889-7077 SP - 8897077231188592 ST - Evaluation of a Primary Care-Based Multidisciplinary Transition Clinic for Patients Newly Initiated on Buprenorphine in the Emergency Department T1 - Evaluation of a Primary Care-Based Multidisciplinary Transition Clinic for Patients Newly Initiated on Buprenorphine in the Emergency Department T2 - Subst Abus TI - Evaluation of a Primary Care-Based Multidisciplinary Transition Clinic for Patients Newly Initiated on Buprenorphine in the Emergency Department U1 - Opioids & Substance Use U3 - 10.1177/08897077231188592 VO - 0889-7077 Y1 - 2023 ER -