Background
Washington has been the home of many promising local interventions to address the opioid crisis, among them a citywide emergency department care coordination program in the Tri-Cities (Neven et al., 2016), a take-home naloxone program in the greater Seattle area (Akers, Hansen, & Oftebro, 2017), and a naloxone rescue program for WSU students in Pullman (Panther, Bray, & White, 2017). But when considering whether to adopt or adapt these local strategies, providers and policymakers need answers to basic questions:
What kind of help is available in my community for people with opioid problems?
How long do they wait for help?
Is there anyone in my county who can prescribe buprenorphine?
Do we have a pharmacy that offers naloxone?
The answers to these questions are out there, but are in multiple forms, on multiple sites, and in some cases require proficiency in statistical software to extract. The Washington MAT Map seeks to make this information easy for non-academic Washington providers, policymakers, and community advocates to find and understand. Knowing how many physicians can prescribe buprenorphine in Cowlitz county is only the first step in determining whether a promising practice will work there – but at least we can make that first step as easy to take as possible.
References
Akers, J. L., Hansen, R. N., & Oftebro, R. D. (2017). Implementing take-home naloxone in an urban community pharmacy. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 57, S161-S167.
Neven, D., Paulozzi, J. P., Howell, D., McPherson, S., Murphy, S. M., Grohs, B, Marsh, L., Lederhos, C., & Roll, J. (2016). A randomized controlled trial of a citywide emergency department care coordination program to reduce prescription opioid related ED visits. Journal of Emergency Medicine, 51(5), 498-507.
Panther, S. G., Bray, B. S., & White, J. R. (2017). The implementation of a naloxone rescue program in university students. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, 57(2S), S197-S112.