Warm Handoffs and Community Resources
An Emergency Medicine Guide to Medication for Opioid Use Disorder
Session originally hosted September 2024.
While it is critical for hospitals to implement medication for opioid use disorder as a standard of care, hospitals are only part of the care ecosystem. Patients need continued access to treatment and community-based care and services after being discharged from a hospital. However, navigating follow up care can be challenging and complicated without help or knowledge of systems. To ensure patients with opioid use disorder have the best chance of remaining in treatment, hospitals should set up warm handoff processes, which involves staff securing a patient’s follow-up appointments and getting them connected to local community resources, like harm reduction services, housing assistance, etc., prior to discharge.
In this training, we will walk through the critical components, data, and literature of warm handoffs and associated outcomes. Then, we will discuss how to identify local community-based resources for handoffs. By the end of the training, you will be able to identify quality improvement opportunities through warm handoffs and referrals.
At the conclusion of this training, learners should be able to:
- Discuss critical components of a warm handoff
- Review the data and literature supporting the role of warm handoffs in patient retention in treatment, improved mortality and decreased likelihood of overdose
- Discuss the mechanisms for identifying community resources for patient follow up
- Identify opportunities for quality improvement associated with outpatient referrals
1 CME Credit. These opportunities also count toward the DEA eight-hour training requirement on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders.
Presenters: Dr. Jacob Manteuffel and Dr. Nick Rademacher
Original Release Date: September 23, 2024
Termination Date: September 22, 2027
Accreditation Statement: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of MyMichigan Health and Michigan Health & Hospital Association. MyMichigan Health is accredited by the Michigan State Medical Society to provide continuing medical education for physicians. MyMichigan Health designates this activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category I Credit(s)TM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Disclosure Statement: Planners, faculty, and others in control of content (either individually or as a group) have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.
Note: Continuing medical education (CME) credits were pursued by the MHA Keystone Center, Please reach out to keystone@mha.org with questions.
