Medication Assisted Treatment Helping More People with Opioid Addiction
As the opioid epidemic continues to have a negative impact across the country, San Mateo County is responding to the challenge by strengthening existing programs and creating new resources to deal with the crisis.
This includes the creation of the Integrated Medication Assisted Treatment (IMAT) program. The IMAT effort consists a team of case managers embedded within San Mateo Medical Center’s Emergency Department and the Primary Care Interface team. In addition, the County opened their first addiction medicine clinic, the San Mateo Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Clinic in 2016.
In the fall of 2017, the clinic expanded their outreach and engagement efforts to serve those with opioid use disorders (OUD) and has seen a significant increase in the number of patients treated. The increase can be attributed to the county-wide effort and commitment to expand access to care which includes a new protocol established at the San Mateo Medical Center’s Emergency Department earlier this year resulting in patients receiving care sooner, extended service offerings at the MAT clinic- including patient walk in hours, and increasing the number for providers who can prescribe buprenorphine.
To read more about IMAT and other efforts the county is making to expand access to medication assisted treatment click here.
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