Somewhere to Go: Implementing Medication-Based Treatment for Opioid Use Disorders in Rural Maryland and beyond

Treatment for opioid use disorders is highly effective yet unavailable in many rural areas. “Somewhere to Go: Ensuring Access to Medication-Assisted Treatment in Rural Maryland” is a Robert Wood Johnson Funded Clinical Scholars project intended to expand the use of tele-health medication-based treatment for opioid use disorders services directly to rural areas in need. We demonstrated that a University-based substance use treatment team can successfully collaborate with a geographically distant rural substance use treatment clinic to provide medication-based treatment for opioid use disorders using a HIPPA compliant telehealth strategy. We provide an overview of the implementation strategies our team used to expand overall access in different locales throughout the State of Maryland and beyond. We describe implementation results of a tele-health medication-based treatment program for opioid use disorders that focuses on implementation successes and how to identify and overcome implementation challenges and barriers. Implementation of a telemedicine approach can be challenging, but careful consideration and forethought can map a successful path to program development, operation and sustainability