Fulfilling a Need: A Residency-Based Program to Preserve a Suboxone Treatment Program in a Rural Community

In Brief

Fulfilling a Need: A Residency-Based Program to Preserve a Suboxone Treatment Program in a Rural Community

Meredith C. Buck and colleagues

Background Members of the Mayo Clinic Family Medicine Residency-Eau Claire created a medication-assisted treatment program for opioid disorders within its practice. They did this by taking over care for a large group of established patients from a single family physician who was leaving the community. Part of this entailed the development of didactic sessions and documentation templates, which facilitated treatment and seamless patient scheduling with residency providers.

What This Study Found The new program helped patients and their original physician to avoid the challenges of identifying other providers and possibly being unable to access care.

Implications

• Program coordinators felt this significantly decreased the risk of patient relapse with its associated costs to individuals and the community.