Baltimore City to Certify Hospitals Based on Opioid Care

“Levels of Care” initiative to categorize hospitals based on ability to treat opioid addiction and overdoses.

The Baltimore City Health Department will certify and classify all 11 of the city’s acute care hospitals based on their ability to provide care for opioid addiction and overdoses. Certifications will be released by December 2018 based on standards that were developed in partnership with the Maryland Hospital Association and other stakeholders.

The Baltimore Business Journal reports:

A three-level system will be used to assess a hospital’s capacity to prevent and treat overdose and opioid use. It will evaluate multiple factors, including a hospital’s ability to provide treatment to any patient — in the emergency department or elsewhere — who screens positive for addiction; distribute overdose-reversal drug naloxone to patients at risk of overdose; connect patients with peers who in recovery from addiction; and ensure physicians are prescribing opioids carefully, in line with specific guidelines. A hospital can be level 3, 2, or 1, with a level 1 hospital offering the most comprehensive approach.

The health department launched this initiative in an effort to expand addiction treatment in the face of the ongoing opioid crisis.

For more information read the full article in The Baltimore Business Journal.

One unfortunate consequence (of many) brought on by the opioid crisis is the dramatic rise in substance exposed newborns (SEN). SEN are babies that test positive for a controlled drug or show symptoms of withdrawal from prenatal exposure. Learn more about what counties are doing to protect our most precious and vulnerable residents at the MACo Summer Conference session, “Handle With Care: Substance Exposed Newborns,” scheduled for Thursday, August 16, 2018 from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm.

Learn more about MACo’s Summer Conference: