Emergency Department & Inpatient Hospital Setting Tools & Protocols
Patients facing negative health impacts from their drug use can be found across a health care system. Regardless of the reason for a patient's visit, an underlying use disorder can complicate their care.
For that reason, it’s important to keep a compassionate eye out for signs that a patient may have a substance use disorder. The initial contact a patient makes within a health care system is often the emergency department, thus making it an important ally for any addiction medicine program.
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Within the emergency department, providers can utilize the following tools to initiate evidence-based care and support patients:
Visit our Access Care page for resources to connect patients with evidence-based addiction care.
Emergency Department Addiction Pathways
Emergency departments are important partners when developing comprehensive addiction medicine programs in hospitals. The emergency department is the first touchpoint for many patients within a health care system. This initial access provides the first opportunity for providers to assess and discuss any use disorders.
While not all patients’ presenting symptoms are related to their use disorder, each visit is an opportunity to address and treat these underlying complex diseases. Pathway programs serve to connect patients with substance use disorders who are seen by emergency department providers with excellent addiction care beyond the emergency room.
Cooper University Health Care, one of the administrators of the SNJMATCOE, launched its Cooper University Health Care Emergency Department Addiction Pathways (CUH EDAP) program in 2016 to foster better collaboration between its ED and addiction medicine teams to better the care for all patients. All ED physicians earned their X-waiver (no longer needed as of January 2023) and created protocols for the assessment of opioid withdrawal, initiation of buprenorphine MOUD, and how to connect patients to long term addiction medicine care. A similar pathway for alcohol use disorder was implemented in Cooper’s ED in 2021.
The SNJMATCOE has a collection of resources available for those interested in developing or improving an addiction pathways program.