Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
British Columbia Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU), 1045 Howe Street, Suite 400, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2A9, Canada.
Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2024 Oct 31;19(1):76. doi: 10.1186/s13722-024-00508-z.
Morbidity and mortality related to substance use have risen to catastrophic levels in North America, and treatment services are often difficult to access. In response, the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada, launched a province-wide addiction medicine support phone line that offers clinicians immediate access to phone consultation with an addictions medicine expert. The service operates 24/7 is accessible to any clinician in the province seeking assistance with an addiction-related question. We describe an evaluation of the reach and perceived impact of the service over its first two years.
The 24/7 Addiction Medicine Clinician Support Line was evaluated prospectively from June 2020 to April 2022. All provider-to-provider encounters were included. Data was collected from two primary sources: health provider demographic information collected at the time of consultation, and optional clinician surveys conducted after the consultation was complete. Descriptive data are presented as numerical values and percentages.
Over the 22-month evaluation period, 1,279 consultations were requested by 631 distinct care providers across British Columbia. The service averaged 15 calls per week across the province, and 51.5% of calls were made outside of business hours. Physicians made the majority of calls to the service (n = 865, 67.6%), followed by nurse practitioners (n = 162, 12.7%). Among those who completed a follow-up survey (n = 258 calls, 20.2% total calls), 81.8% (n = 211) were "very" or "extremely" satisfied with the consultation. Of these respondents, 65.5% (n = 169) reported that the consultation led to the provision of better care for their patient, with 58.1% (n = 150) initiating a new prescription and 22.1% (n = 57) reporting expedited treatment for their patient. The consultation area of focus was most commonly opioid use (n = 417; 59.6%), followed by polysubstance use (n = 98; 14.0%).
The impact of the 24/7 Addiction Clinician Support Line was widespread, and the service increased accessibility to evidence-based addictions treatment across a range of care settings. Clinicians expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the service. To our knowledge, this province-wide program is the first of its kind in North America, offering a scalable and adaptable model to support access to evidence-based addictions care in under-resourced settings.
在北美，与物质使用相关的发病率和死亡率已经上升到灾难性的水平，而且治疗服务往往难以获得。为应对这一问题，加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省（BC）推出了全省范围内的成瘾医学支持热线，为临床医生提供了与成瘾医学专家进行电话咨询的即时通道。该服务每周 7 天、每天 24 小时开放，全省任何寻求成瘾相关问题帮助的临床医生均可使用。我们描述了该服务在头两年的覆盖范围和感知影响的评估情况。
从 2020 年 6 月至 2022 年 4 月，对 24/7 成瘾医学临床医生支持热线进行了前瞻性评估。所有医患间的咨询均被纳入。数据主要通过两个来源收集：咨询时收集的医疗服务提供者的人口统计学信息，以及咨询结束后进行的可选临床医生调查。描述性数据以数值和百分比表示。
在 22 个月的评估期间，不列颠哥伦比亚省共有 631 名不同的医护人员拨打了 1279 次热线。该服务在全省平均每周接到 15 个电话，51.5%的电话是在工作时间之外打来的。医生是该服务的主要使用者（n=865，占 67.6%），其次是执业护士（n=162，占 12.7%）。在完成后续调查的（n=258 次电话，占总电话数的 20.2%）人中，81.8%（n=211）表示对咨询非常满意或极其满意。在这些受访者中，65.5%（n=169）表示咨询使他们能够为患者提供更好的护理，58.1%（n=150）为患者开了新处方，22.1%（n=57）为患者加快了治疗速度。咨询的重点领域最常见的是阿片类药物使用（n=417；59.6%），其次是多种物质使用（n=98；14.0%）。
24/7 成瘾临床医生支持热线的影响广泛，该服务提高了在一系列医疗环境中获得循证成瘾治疗的可及性。临床医生对该服务表示高度满意。据我们所知，该省范围内的项目在北美尚属首例，为资源匮乏地区提供了一种可扩展和适应的模式，以支持获得循证成瘾治疗。
