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Increasing Access to MOUD by Educating Physicians

An educational intervention in Oregon increased physicians waivered to prescribe buprenorphine

This quality improvement project aimed to increase the number of primary care physicians (PCPs) waivered to prescribe buprenorphine and the number of primary care clinics with at least one waivered PCP.  Conducted over 18 months in a large primary care network, part of the Providence Medical Group, the intervention involved multi-pronged outreach to 27 clinics, and included face-to-face meetings, use of an educational toolkit, conference calls, one-on-one coaching, and a monthly newsletter on medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD).

A preliminary survey identified barriers to potential uptake of a MOUD waiver by PCPs, including perceptions that opioid use disorder patients would present significant challenges, the presence of co-morbidities, and the time necessary to provide opioid use disorder treatment. These concerns were addressed in the educational interventions.

By the end of the project, 45% of participating clinics had at least one waivered PCP, and the number of waivered PCPs increased 9-fold. 

This study was associated with a nearly 9-fold increase in the number of physicians who were trained and willing to treat OUD with buprenorphine.

Continuum of Care
Treatment
Type of Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Response Approach
Educational
Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
Peer-reviewed Article
Association of a Multimodal Educational Intervention for Primary Care Physicians With Prescriptions of Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorders
Related Resources
Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Save Lives
Opioid Use Disorder: Barriers to Medicaid Beneficiaries’ Access to Treatment Medications
Medication-Assisted Treatment With Buprenorphine: Assessing the Evidence
Barriers to primary care physicians prescribing buprenorphine
Medication-Assisted Treatment Models of Care for Opioid Use Disorder in Primary Care Settings
Primary Care–Based Models for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: A Scoping Review
Primary Care: On the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic
Advancing Access to Addiction Medications: Implications for Opioid Addiction Treatment

Evidence of Program Effectiveness

"In this quality improvement study, an educational intervention was associated with an increase in the number of PCPs and clinics that could provide buprenorphine treatment for OUD and with an increase in the patients who were able to access care with medications for OUD." (Clark et al., 2019)