RE: Increasing Capacity for Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in Rural Primary Care Practices

  • Andrew J Russell, Undergraduate, The Ohio State University
  • Other Contributors:
    • Lorraine S Wallace, Associate Professor- College of Medicine, The Ohio State University
24 March 2022

It is certainly undeniable that opioid use disorder (OUD) is a significant crisis in the United States, especially in rural communities. Importantly, rural opioid-related mortality rates have increased over 600% in non-metropolitan counties over the last twenty years.1 It is crucial that more attention is drawn to this issue, as in many parts of the country, patients are viewed through the lens of the stigma that is often associated with addiction. As evidenced by your findings, IT MATTTRs training enables primary care teams to deliver quality treatment, specifically with buprenorphine, to those suffering from OUD. The results show that the number of patients with a buprenorphine prescription increased significantly because of the IT MATTTRs program. The most important conclusion that can be drawn from these findings is that the IT MATTTRs program can truly affect the approach primary care teams take regarding OUD treatment.
Furthermore, it is vital that primary care practice-based networks included in the study were able to successfully implement parts of the IT MATTTRs program needed to increase treatment delivery. This demonstrates that the program was reasonable for a practice to follow, suggesting that practices with similar resources in other locations may be able to enact similar policies. Although specific data from each practice was not provided as part of this report, available data indicates that the IT MATTTRS program was able to reach the goal of increasing the frequency at which buprenorphine was administered. In the future, could this research be expanded to evaluate a potential difference in health outcomes for patients treated as a result of the program? Additionally, could this same technique be applied in practices in other rural areas around the country, provided they have access to similar resources? Thank you for your research regarding such a critical healthcare issue.

Reference
1. Rigg KK, Monnat SM, Chavez MN. Opioid-related mortality in rural America: Geographic heterogeneity and intervention strategies. Int J Drug Policy. 2018;57:119-129. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2018.04.011.

Competing Interests: None declared.
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