News

December 3, 2018

St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center Receives Grant to Address Continuity of Care for Patients Battling Addiction

BRIGHTON, MASS. – St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, in collaboration with Addiction Treatment Centers of New England (ATCNE), have received a $500,000 grant from the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services over two years to support the Transitional Addiction Treatment (TAT) Program which will ensure continuity of care for individuals receiving inpatient addiction treatment when they transition to outpatient medication-assisted treatment program. The St. Elizabeth’s Comprehensive Addiction Program (SECAP) unit will be the point of initiation, and ATCNE, located on the same campus as St. Elizabeth’s, will be the transitional program for opiate treatment. 

“Leaving inpatient care and transitioning to an outpatient program is a time of increased vulnerability and relapse for many patients,” said Brian Jewers, MSN, RN, Senior Nurse Manager, SECAP. “Our ongoing clinical collaboration, now supported by additional and critical funding, is in the best interest of our patients’ recovery, and St. Elizabeth’s is proud to be part of this critical relationship.”

The grant will help fund the integration of systems both clinical and operational systems, in addition to financially supporting staff, to help ensure a seamless transition of care. 

ATCNE is a licensed medication-assisted treatment program (MAT) and has joined with the level-IV inpatient detoxification program at St. Elizabeth’s, SECAP in which ATCNE will assign a team of staff that includes a Certified Addictions Registered Nurse (CARN), a licensed counselor and a Recovery Support Navigator (RSN) as resources to SECAP for patients identified for the transition. These staff, while employed by ATCNE, will participate in the assessment, treatment planning, and discharge planning meetings at SECAP. The nurse will review the detox protocol for the SECAP admissions that will be referred for MAT at ATCNE and confirm the dosing level at discharge to ensure that the same does is administered to the client on their first day at ACTNE. 

For more information about addiction treatment programs, contact SECAP at (617) 789-2574.

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About St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center

St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center is a major academic medical center affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine.  Areas of medical excellence include vascular and endovascular surgery, cardiology, neurosciences, general and robotic surgery, bariatric surgery, women’s health, high-risk obstetrics, bone and joint health, hematology/oncology, pulmonary medicine and emergency medicine.  St. Elizabeth’s is a member of Steward Health Care. Visit St. Elizabeth’s online at www.semc.org.