Hospital-based addiction program proves effective in treating opioid use disorder

Previous research has found that over 80 percent of people with opioid use disorder (OUD) do not receive evidence-based, lifesaving medications. Although access to these medications is better in New York City than elsewhere in the United States, more than 100,000 people in the United States continue to die from drug overdoses each year.

To help close this alarming treatment gap, researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine partnered with the New York City public hospital system to investigate if a program offering addiction care to patients with a substance use disorder while they are in the hospital could lead to better uptake of OUD treatment after discharge.

The findings, published online July 29 in JAMA Internal Medicine, indicated that this intervention, known as the CATCH (Consult for Addiction Treatment and Care in Hospitals) program, was highly effective. In the first large randomized controlled trial of hospital-based addiction consult services for the treatment of opioid use disorder, the team of researchers found that with the CATCH program, the odds of patients initiating medication for opioid use disorder treatment after discharge were eight times higher, and the odds of continuing treatment were nearly six times higher, in comparison to usual care.

Addiction consult programs like CATCH have tremendous potential to reduce the negative consequences of untreated substance use disorder. We have highly effective medications for treating opioid use disorder and preventing overdose, but far too few patients are receiving them. It is our hope that programs like CATCH will be replicated, reimbursed, and rolled out at hospitals across the country, to transform hospital care for patients who have substance use disorder."

Jennifer McNeely, MD, principal investigator of the study and associate professor in the Departments of Population Health and Medicine at NYU Langone

People with untreated opioid use disorder have high rates of hospital admissions, which can be an opportunity for starting medications for OUD treatment and improving engagement with medical and harm reduction services, said Dr. McNeely. Specialty consult services are common in the hospital, but rare for addiction. For example, patients hospitalized after asthma attacks are typically seen by a pulmonary consult service, which would have specialized providers to make a diagnosis, start medications, and craft a discharge plan for ongoing treatment. But in most hospitals, there is no specialized care for patients who are hospitalized after an overdose, or who have other complications of a substance use disorder. Programs like CATCH fill this gap.

How the study was conducted

Beginning in October 2017 and running through January 2021, the randomized trial was conducted in 6 of the 11 public hospitals run by NYC Health + Hospitals. Using data from New York State Medicaid claims data and electronic health records to identify patients with substance use disorder, the investigators analyzed the impact of CATCH on 2,315 hospitalized patients.

CATCH consult teams consisted of a medical clinician, a social worker or addiction counselor, and a peer counselor. The investigators assessed whether patients who were not already in treatment prior to hospitalization received medication for OUD in the first 14 days after their hospital discharge, as well as continuation with treatment 30 days after initiation. Initiation was defined as having at least one outpatient treatment event, such as a filled prescription for buprenorphine, used to treat OUD, or an encounter in an opioid treatment program. Engagement in treatment was defined as having two treatment events 30 days after starting medication for OUD.

The majority of identified patients were male (73 percent); they were 47 years old on average. Patients were racially and ethnically diverse, with 31.5 percent Black and 32.5 percent Hispanic. Two-thirds of patients had three or more chronic medical conditions and at least one diagnosis of serious mental illness. In the past three years, half had had three or more hospitalizations and 58 percent had three or more visits to the emergency department, while less than half had received any medications for OUD before.

With the CATCH program, 11 percent of patients with eligible admissions started OUD medications following discharge, compared to less than 7 percent when hospitals were providing usual care. Out of all eligible admissions, 7.5 percent of patients in CATCH hospitals remained in treatment for at least 30 days, compared to 5.5 percent in usual care. Retention in treatment after six months was low for both the CATCH (3.2 percent) and control patients (2.4 percent).

The six NYC Health + Hospitals participating in the study have continued offering CATCH even after the study ended.

"NYC Health + Hospitals' Consult for Addiction Treatment and Care in Hospital teams engage patients admitted into the hospital who exhibit symptoms of substance use disorder. They offer compassionate, wrap-around, cutting-edge addiction care," said Daniel Schatz, MD, MS, the hospitals' medical director of Substance Use Disorder Services. "We have begun thousands of patients on lifesaving buprenorphine treatment through this program, and we are grateful to NYU Langone for partnering with us on a study to show what we have long witnessed every day. The impact of programs like CATCH is indisputable, both in direct clinical outcomes and in catalyzing culture change within hospitals to make them the gold standard of care. These teams, located at six of our hospitals, are bringing care directly to patients who need it the most, ensuring that patients have the resources and treatment that they need."

Despite the success of CATCH, treatment for OUD after hospitalization remains low, largely due to structural and social barriers, reminds Dr. McNeely, highlighting the need for further efforts to improve hospital and community-based services for treatment.

Additional research is also needed to determine if addiction consult services may be effective in boosting initiation to treatment for patients with non-opioid substance use disorders following discharge from the hospital, the investigators said.

In addition to Dr. McNeely, other study investigators from NYU Langone include Yasna Rostam-Abadi, MD, MPH; Thadeus Tarpey, PhD; Jasmine Fernando, MPharm; Noa Appleton, MPH; Adetayo Fawole, MD, MPH; and Medha Mazumdar, MS.

New York City Health + Hospitals collaborators include senior author Carla King, MPH; Samira Siddiqui, MPH; Charles Barron, MD; Roopa Kalyanaraman Marcello, DrPH; Johanna Dolle, MPA; and Caroline Cooke, MPH. Additional investigators include John Billings, JD, and Scarlett Wang, MPH, MSW, from the NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; and Zoe M. Weinstein, MD, from the Department of Medicine, Boston University Chobanian & Avedesian School of Medicine, Boston Medical Center.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), grant number R01DA045669. Funding for initiation of the CATCH program was also provided under former New York City mayor Bill de Blasio's Healing NYC initiative.