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Rural Access to MAT in Pennsylvania (Project RAMP)

This program trains rural primary care doctors to provide medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorder

Rapidly rising opioid overdoses and deaths make it a priority to increase the availability of effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), especially in rural areas where addiction clinics are in short supply. The Rural Access to MAT program in Pennsylvania (Project RAMP) was initiated by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to train primary care physicians in rural counties to provide medication assisted treatment (MAT) for OUD. Primary care providers are given knowledge, skills, tools, and support so that they can deliver high-quality care for OUD with buprenorphine and other medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). 

Participants are given a curriculum on OUD, MAT, office protocols, and co-occurring disorders, and project staff and a Care Management Team are available to guide them in setting up a practice, described in a flow chart here. The program provides hands-on training in MAT and continuing peer support, and has recruited 26 primary care providers in 13 rural counties. Project RAMP thus serves as a model for how to increase treatment for OUD in rural areas.  

Papers describing the purpose, design, and implementation of the program are available here and here. More information on the program is available here, and contact information is available at the program website. An expansion of the original project is described here.

Project RAMP provides primary care physicians in rural Pennsylvania with the knowledge, skills, tools, and support to provide the highest quality MAT services.

Continuum of Care
Treatment
Type of Evidence
Peer-reviewed
Response Approach
Medications for Opioid Use Disorder
Peer-reviewed Article
Rural access to MAT in Pennsylvania (RAMP): a hybrid implementation study protocol for medication assisted treatment adoption among rural primary care providers
Strategies to recruit rural primary care providers to implement a medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) focused integrated care model
Related Resources
Implementing Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Rural Primary Care: Environmental Scan Volume 1
Implementing Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in Rural Primary Care: Environmental Scan Volume 2 Tools and Resources
A Systematic Review of Rural-Specific Barriers to Medication Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in the United States
Intervention, Treatment, and Prevention Strategies to Address Opioid Use Disorders in Rural Areas: A Primer On Opportunities For Medicaid-Safety Net Collaboration
West Virginia's Model of Buprenorphine Expansion: Preliminary Results
Key Components for Delivering Community-Based Medication-Assisted Treatment Services for Opioid Use Disorder in New Hampshire
Medication-Assisted Treatment With Buprenorphine: Assessing the Evidence
Heartache, Pain, and Hope: Rural Communities, Older People, and the Opioid Crisis
Barriers to primary care physicians prescribing buprenorphine
Primary Care–Based Models for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder: A Scoping Review
Primary Care: On the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic
project-ramp.pdf

Evidence of Program Effectiveness

"Results showed that the Project RAMP recruitment approach successfully recruited 26 sites to participate, exceeding the Project's target of 24 sites, and there was a median of 49 days from first contact to project onboarding. Findings from the KIIs highlighted the value of engaging PCPs by connecting to a shared vision (i.e., improving the quality of patient care) as well as addressing participation barriers such as lack of training or resources via concierge technical assistance, training, and expert consultation." Cloutier, R. et al. 2023.