Q&A
Follow-up care on weekends and holidays
1:01:55
ยท
143 sec
Council Member Narcisse raises concerns about follow-up care for patients on weekends and holidays when clinics are typically closed. Dr. Schatz acknowledges the importance of this issue and outlines several strategies H+H is implementing to address it.
- Many H+H clinics offer extended hours to provide coverage outside normal business hours
- The Virtual Express Care program offers 24/7 coverage for mental health and buprenorphine access
- Emergency departments are encouraged to administer and prescribe medications for opioid use disorder, including on weekends and holidays
- Settlement funds are being used to ensure there are no barriers to patients receiving necessary medications
Mercedes Narcisse
1:01:55
One of the problem that I used to face is just weekend and holidays when the clinics are closed.
1:02:02
So are you implementing implementing implementing anything for the follow-up?
1:02:11
Because if you don't implement that, especially on the weekend and holidays, when the clinics are closed you know, it's personal.
1:02:19
I get emotional because I'm gonna remember all my patients in my head right now.
1:02:23
So, what are we doing to make sure those kind of follow-up?
1:02:28
Because we sometimes we call the freaking flyers of the holidays.
1:02:32
You know, which I used to hate when my colleagues calling names because I kind of like I said I don't want to be biased when y'all making jokes so I have to retain that kind of calm.
1:02:42
But we know that they existed because they come at that specific time during the holidays and the weekend.
1:02:51
And there's no follow-up.
1:02:54
We just drop them out.
1:02:55
We just give them if we have back in the days, we have a little kind of methadone on the side.
1:03:02
We just give but there is no follow real follow-up.
1:03:06
Are you doing a real follow-up right now for our freaking flyers of the holidays and weekend?
Dr. Daniel Schatz
1:03:12
Yeah.
1:03:12
As a primary care doctor, I can tell you that those patients do, leave that lasting impact on you.
1:03:17
And when you can't provide coverage because their clinic is closed, it's devastating
UNKNOWN
1:03:21
because if they go into withdrawal, then they're going to relapse and you lost
Dr. Daniel Schatz
1:03:21
that opportunity.
1:03:21
So, absolutely, this is withdrawal, then they're going to relapse and you lost that opportunity.
1:03:25
So absolutely, this is a focus of ours.
1:03:28
Many of our clinics offer extended hours.
1:03:30
Outside, our methadone clinics do offer, various different services.
1:03:34
So usually, we can provide coverage as a system that way.
1:03:38
Importantly, this is where virtual express care comes in, harkening back to my own primary care clinic where I'm only there one day a week.
1:03:45
They rely on me being there on Wednesday mornings.
1:03:47
And so if they have an issue or if I'm on vacation or something, they can call that virtual express care to make sure they're able to bridge them in that important time.
1:03:54
In the emergency department, a lot of the patients do come on the weekends, at night, or on holidays.
1:04:01
We're not only encouraging the administration of buprenorphine and medications for opioid use disorder right in the emergency department, but prescribing in the outpatient setting.
1:04:10
We're using some of those settlement funds to make sure that there's no reason that they should get any of those medications denied because that's often a barrier in this, treatment cascade.