The existing approach to the opioid epidemic is often fragmented and diffuse. While individual hospitals and health systems are making meaningful progress through different clinical pathways and by closing local access gaps, HAP's efforts focused on better coordination and measurement. 

With funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, administrated through Vital Strategies, HAP created a no-cost, two-year program for member hospitals to support and build on their great work to go further, faster, together.

Opioid LAN's Focus

Leveraging the learnings from HAP’s Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) and Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN), HAP created the Opioid LAN to support member hospitals in making measurable improvements on the following goals:

• Decrease overdoses and subsequent deaths
• Increase the number of patients entering treatment
• Increase the number of patients starting medication-assisted treatment (MAT)

The Opioid LAN focused on the following aims:

• Increasing medication-assisted treatment initiation in the emergency department and warm hand-offs to medication-assisted treatment in the community
• Increasing direct warm hand-offs to community providers for medication-assisted treatment or abstinence-based treatment
• Increasing evidence-based OUD treatment and warm hands-offs for pregnant women through coordination with the Pennsylvania Quality Collaborative
• Increasing the number of direct inpatient admissions for medication-assisted treatment initiation from the emergency department; and medication-assisted treatment initiation of OUD patients hospitalized, overall
• Increasing warm hand-offs in primary care settings
• Increasing access to medication-assisted treatment in primary care settings

Opioid LAN Infrastructure and Member Support

The Opioid LAN infrastructure supported participating hospitals and health systems with:

• Annual in-person meetings
• Regional gatherings with facilitated information sharing
• Webinars and other distance learning technologies
• Collaborative website, metrics, and performance tracking
• Office hours and virtual small group discussions with clinical/administrative champions and technical experts

Year Two

On September 23, 2020, the LAN held the first of its year two regional convening. During year two, the LAN broadened its focus to advancing evidence-based substance use disorder care outside the hospital walls and aimed to improve practice at other clinical entry points while sustaining emergency department-initiated momentum. 

LAN content and programmatic touchpoints for year two supported hospitals and health systems in increasing warm-hand offs in primary care settings and increasing access to medication-assisted treatment in primary care settings. LAN also worked to identify policy-related barriers to care, quantify reimbursement gaps, and financial short falls, and developed recommendations about meaningful funding structures and policy changes.

Information about the HAP Opioid LAN, a recording of the September 23 regional meeting, and a growing compendium of LAN resources and tools can be found at the LAN collaborative website.

HAP Contacts

Contact HAP's Jennifer Jordan, vice president, regulatory, behavioral health and equity strategy, with questions or for more information. Media inquiries should be directed to Liam Migdail, director, media relations.