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[post_date] => 2020-10-29 21:16:29
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Aspenti is a driving force for Patient Experience Excellence and proudly champions services that uphold the 5 Principles of Trauma Informed Care (TIC). How do we apply Trauma Informed Care to our collection Services?
First, let’s take a closer look at the 5 Principles of Trauma Informed Care:
Safety
Trustworthiness
Choice
Collaboration
Empowerment
Our services start with the Trauma Informed Care principles of Safety and Trustworthiness, in mind. Safety means that anywhere we provide services, each patient in our care should feel physically, psychologically, and emotionally safe during their collection.
Trustworthiness refers to providing a high-quality experience that protects a patient’s rights and their confidentiality. For all Aspenti services, including Telecollections, we use healthcare technology that our patients and providers can trust. For example, our telehealth healthcare application meets the highest industry standards for HIPAA compliance and full encryption. Aspenti also consistently achieves its high standards of care by providing a well-designed training program to each Client Care Assistant.
Our colleagues are trained on HIPAA protection, Professional Communication, Stigma Prevention, understanding their role in elevating the Patient Experience, and much more. We have created a framework for our team to uphold safety and trustworthiness with consistency.
Our organization also contributes to the last three principles of Trauma-Informed Care: Choice, Collaboration, Empowerment. We do this through innovation and listening with the intent to the patient’s voice. For years now, patients have shared with us their challenges around getting to a Patient Service Center for collections and fitting this process into their busy lives. An Aspenti survey, recently showed that out of 216 patients, 2/3 of them experienced these challenges before the pandemic. Fears around COVID-19 and viral exposure have only exacerbated this problem. To give patients choices and peace of mind, our designed and implemented thoughtful protocols for all our service sites that meet or exceed the highest COVID-19 safety standards and build upon the principles of Trauma Informed Care as well. We want the patients to feel safe, to trust our standards of care, and to feel good with their service options.
Aspenti is dedicated to creating innovate solutions that give patients and providers choices. When following a TIC model and collaborating with their patients on collection services, providers now have options. They can guide their patients to an Aspenti Patient Service Center, arrange Mobile Collections, or enroll them in our convenient at home Telecollections services. This empowers each patient to decide the where, when, and how of their collection.
Together with their providers, they can identify which option supports their specific care plan. Our team is proud to provide service innovations that help providers give their patients options that not only truly fit their lives but that support all 5 Principles of Trauma-Informed Care as well: Safety, Trustworthiness, Choice, Collaboration, and Empowerment.
This article was written by:
Alexa Brett, BAS HCML, COTA/L
Aspenti Health Director of Client and Patient Experience
[post_title] => Trauma Informed Principles for Collection Services
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As COVID-19 continues to plague the United States, cases are documented on a state by state basis. Native Americans and Alaskans are both underrepresented in the media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and have disproportionately high cases on their sovereign lands. As of July 12, the Navajo Nation in Oaklahoma had 8,187 cases of COVID-19, 401 of which resulted in death. The Navajo Nation has the highest cases per-100 people in the United States.
The pandemic surges in these vulnerable communities at a time when they face another major health crisis, the opioid epidemic. According to the National Indian Health Board, “American Indians and Alaska Natives face opioid-related fatalities at three times the rate for Blacks and Hispanic Whites” (National Indian Health Board). The high fatality rates compared to other races can be attributed to the lack of medical care and funding on these reservations. Tribal nations are regularly excluded from public-funded health initiatives, so while a state may allocate resources to combat the epidemic, sovereign nations do not receive those resources. And while sovereign nations lack access recovery resources, they do not lack access to the drugs themselves.
According to an analysis of the Drug Enforcement Administration database, “Opioid distributors shipped an average of 57 pills per person per year to Oklahoma from 2006 to 2014. That’s far higher than the national average of 36 and just under the number of pills shipped to states in the opioid belt in and around Appalachia…At least 370 Native Americans in Oklahoma overdosed and died — with a death rate roughly equivalent to that of West Virginia” (Horwitz et al 2020).
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a similar set of challenges for sovereign nations, they lack federal support from the state they reside in, despite identical challenges faced. Many lawyers across the country represent sovereign nations and demand justice for these communities both for the mistreatment throughout their challenges with the opioid epidemic and the disproportionately high cases and deaths of COVID-19. Lloyd Miller, a lawyer representing Oaklahoma tribes writes, “The opioid crisis devastated Indian country by every measure. So did lung cancer. But when the tobacco litigation was all wrapped up, not a dime was allocated to tribal governments to deal with the devastation that cancer had left behind and the addiction issues. That will not be repeated” (Horwitz et al 2020).
Find more resources about the effects of the COIVD-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic on sovereign nations below:
Hlavinka, E. (2020). COVID-19 Further Strains Care Disparities Among Native Americans. https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86633
Horwitz, S., Cenziper, D., and Rich, S. (2020). As opioids flooded tribal lands across the U.S., overdose deaths skyrocketed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/investigations/native-american-opioid-overdose-deaths/
Indian Health Service. (2019). Opioid Crisis Data: Understanding the Epidemic. https://www.ihs.gov/opioids/data/
National Indian Health Board. (2020). Addressing the Opioid Epidemic in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities. https://www.nihb.org/docs/09182017/Opioids%20One%20pager.PDF
Pinon, N. (2020). Native American communities are struggling during the pandemic. Here's how to help. https://mashable.com/article/how-to-help-native-american-communities-coronavirus/
[post_title] => When an Epidemic and Pandemic Collide: the Effects of COVID-19 and Opioid Addiction on Sovereign Nations in North America
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Content provided by Alexa Brett, Director of Client and Patient Experience.
Innovative COVID-19 response for substance use disorder patient care to support rural health access across Vermont.
COVID-19 has caused much uncertainty and anxiety for patients in our community especially around travel and viral exposure. The Aspenti Mobile Unit offers our clients an option to support their patients’ treatment plans through accessible and convenient testing services.
The Aspenti Mobile Unit follows safety guidelines to allow for the proper six foot social distancing and the highest level of infection prevention measures required by the Vermont Health Department. The mobile unit offers support at your doorstep for patients that are sheltering in place during the pandemic. Serving as an innovative solution for collection on wheels, it will make access to collections easier for patients who would otherwise struggle accessing patient centers.
Through the efforts of multiple departments, structural changes, route logistics and COVID-19 safety protocols were put into place to get the mobile unit up and running.
“The feedback for our new mobile collection solution from both patients and clients has been very positive. Patients feel comfortable with the COVID-19 safety protocols we have set in place. They like that this new option supports their recovery and is conveniently available close to home. Providers have expressed that they are thankful for this new mobile testing service which allows them to continue to follow their patients’ plan of care during the pandemic” Alexa Brett, Director of Client and Patient Experience, Aspenti Health
The Aspenti mobile Unit will be used Monday-Friday across the state of VT.
[post_title] => Aspenti Health™ launches a Mobile Unit for Urine Drug Testing Collections
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Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT; also known as Medications for Opioid Use Disorder; MOUD) is a lifeline for so many in treatment with Opioid Use Disorder. In particular, the combination product of buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone) has saved lives by preventing overdoses, reducing IV heroin-associated infectious diseases - such as HIV and Hepatitis C - and by improving patient's chance of staying in treatment.
Given the importance of buprenorphine treatment, patients at times can feel pressure to demonstrate that they are staying on the medications, even if they haven't been able to stick with the treatment plan. This can result in feelings of shame, fear of repercussions, or a desire to not disappoint their provider. As part of the disease process, patients may even be motivated by the desire to divert or sell some of their medications.
Due to these pressures, patients can occasionally engage in a practice where they "spike" the original drug directly into their urine. In this case, buprenorphine will be detected in a patient's urine, but it will not have been actually consumed. This practice will be missed on any common immunoassay-based screening method. However, if confirmation testing is ordered, both the original drug (also known as the parent drug) as well as the drug's metabolite (norbuprenophrine) will be detected.
Providers have increasingly relied upon the ratio of the metabolite norbuprenorphine to the original drug (buprenorphine), known as the N:B ratio, to identify this practice of spiking urine samples with drug. Since naloxone is also part of the Suboxone combination product, there has been some speculation that naloxone levels can also be used to highlight this practice.
Aspenti conducted a study to determine if elevated naloxone levels can be used to flag possible cases in which patients have spiked their urine with drug. Though only a small case study, this was the largest evaluation of urinary naloxone concentrations to date. We found that naloxone levels (>2000 ng/ml) may be useful clinically to flag cases of possible urine spiking with Suboxone.
To learn more about this recent study, please see the article here: https://ascpjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13722-020-0178-9.
[post_title] => Using Naloxone Levels To Detect "Spiked" Urine Tests
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[post_date] => 2019-02-21 11:54:12
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[post_content] => Deaths related to opioid overdoses dropped from 35 (in Chittenden County) in 2017, to 17 deaths in 2018. That's a steady decline for Vermont's most populated county and the lowest level they have seen in six years. However, the rates across the rest of the counties in Vermont increased by 36 percent, totaling to 110 deaths this past year, which is up from 108 in 2017. That total is actually a new record for the state of Vermont.
The mayor of Burlington, Miro Weinberger, claims the decrease is due to the area's support of MAT, medication-assisted treatment, and joint efforts between Chittenden County Opioid Alliance, hospitals, and local law enforcement. For example, Burlington police have made a promise to not arrest those with buprenorphine found on them, a medication that is used to reduce symptoms of opioid withdrawal. Vermont uses a "hub and spoke" system for the MAT treatment, there are intensive treatment facilities acting as "hubs" and regional, local treatment that is continuous, "spokes".
Fentanyl-related deaths increased and the dangerous synthetic opioid was involved in 75 percent of the opioid related deaths last year. That number was triple the amount from 2015 and heroin was involved in 55 percent of the fatalities, often mixed with fentanyl. A majority of these deaths were accidental, and the remaining were not conclusive.
References:
Seven Days (2018)."Opioid Deaths Rise in Vermont but Plummet in Chittenden County" https://www.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2019/02/14/opioid-deaths-rise-in-vermont-but-plummet-in-chittenden-county
Burlington Free Press (2018). "Opioid Deaths down 50 percent in Chittenden County" https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2019/02/15/opioid-deaths-down-50-percent-chittenden-county-vermont/2882146002/
[post_title] => Opioid-Related Deaths Dropped 50 Percent in Chittenden County in 2018
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[post_date] => 2019-02-04 16:24:40
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[post_content] => In the last five years, more than 1,600 Maine residents have died from a drug overdose. Governor Janet Mills has only been on the job for a few weeks, but she is planning to execute a lot of changes to alleviate drug overdoses in the state. In her first month. Mills recently named Gordon Smith the state’s first ever Director of Opioid Response, Smith being a long time medical lobbyist.
Where is Mills going to start battling the epidemic?
She believes more preventative measures must be put into action, like broadening the access to naloxone. Naloxone is an overdose reversal drug that can save the life of someone overdosing on opioids, but it can be costly to taxpayers. “We're preparing an executive order in that regard. Preparing some financial orders that may well help transfer some funds and draw down some federal funds that are already there to help address that problem,” Mills said in response to the potential increase in taxpayers costs.
Maine already has safe injection sites, but Mills is expanding access to those as well as getting more Main residents into substance use treatment centers. The numbers in Maine are staggering for overdose deaths, and it’s understandable why Governor Mills is taking such fast action. In 2017, Maine reported 418 drug overdose deaths and there were 180 deaths in the first 6 months of 2018.
Reference. 2018 https://wgme.com/news/local/gov-mills-takes-new-approach-to-solving-opioid-crisis WGME
[post_title] => What is the Governor of Maine doing to address the opioid crisis?
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[post_content] => The National Safety Council released a study stating that Americans are more likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than a vehicle crash.
“The group analyzed preventable injuries and deaths in 2017 and found the odds of dying by accidental opioid overdose to be 1 in 96 and the odds of a motor vehicle crash 1 in 103.”
Each day, 130 Americans die after overdosing on opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drug headlining many of these overdose deaths is illicit fentanyl; a powerful and dangerous synthetic opioid that has spread like wildfire in black markets for drugs.
How did we get to this point? How did we arrive at a point in US history where more people are dying from an opioid overdose than a car accident?
In the 1990’s pain pills were aggressively marketed by pharmaceutical companies to doctors, and marketed as being “safe”. This led doctors to prescribe pain pills more often, and in higher amounts. Eventually, many patients became addicted and the federal government brought criminal charges to companies for marketing their pain pills as being safer and less addictive then other opioids. In the last 15 years, the DEA and CDC have worked hard to create regulations surrounding pain pills and prescribing them.
The CDC has reported that the national life expectancy rate is declining as the number of fatal opioid overdoses rise. Those born in 2017 are expected to live to be 78.6 years old, whereas babies born in 2016 had a 1.2 month higher life expectancy. Stats like this one make the epidemic a very real and scary crisis.
However, there are many solutions that can be applied such as expanding access to addiction treatment, giving easier access to medications such as buprenorphine, that treat addiction and reduce mortality rate for patients.
“Vermont saw its overdose death rate drop by around 6 percent in 2017 with the continued expansion of a hub and spoke system that integrates addiction treatment into the rest of health care. Rhode Island also saw a roughly 2 percent drop, as it implemented, among other changes, better access to opioid addiction medications in its prisons and jails. And Massachusetts saw a roughly 3 percent drop, along with a public health campaign that has emphasized more addiction treatment, including in emergency rooms, and fewer painkiller prescriptions.”
References:
Beth Leipholtz (2018). Opioid Overdose Deaths Surpass Vehicle Crash Deaths For First Time. https://www.thefix.com/opioid-overdose-deaths-surpass-vehicle-crash-deaths-first-time
German Lopez (2018). Americans are now more likely to die from opioid overdoses than car crashes. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/1/15/18183815/opioid-epidemic-car-crashes-national-safety-council
Jessica Bursztynsky (2018) Americans more likely to die from opioid overdose today than car accident. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/15/americans-more-likely-to-die-from-opioid-overdose-than-car-accident.html
[post_title] => Surprisingly, Americans Are More Likely to Perish from an Opioid Overdose Than This...
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[post_content] => The opioid crisis has changed our communities dramatically across the country. With so many different channels for Americans’ to become addicted to opioids, it’s at the point where those who have taken an oath to do no harm, might be doing the most long-term harm with their prescribing practices. With the addition of the instant life and death consequences fentanyl attributes to the equation, the fight many healthcare entities are now facing is a completely new, complicated and ever-evolving task at hand.
As healthcare companies, treatment facilities, recovery organizations, drug testing labs, and everyday communities across the nation we must now rapidly accelerate our views on how we view Substance Use Disorder. At Aspenti Health we have a dedicated social mission focused on this very cause.
“We enhance the quality of life for our patients and their communities. We acknowledge the responsibility of social stewardship and the importance of partnership and collaboration, as we promote positive change, improve well-being, and create a better world for all.”
Aspenti Health ™ Social Mission
Since the launch of the Aspenti Health brand in July of this year, our drug testing lab has done everything it can to enhance the quality of life for our patients and communities we serve. With a focus on patient care, this September’s Recovery Month we hosted Patient Appreciation Day Lunches across our 10 state-wide Patient Service Centers, providing a meal for our patients who may be experiencing food insecurity. To open the eyes of the public through mainstream media this fall Aspenti sponsored a content campaign with Seven Days to shed light on the incredible efforts the VT recovery community is doing while the shadow of the opioid crisis blankets the state. Seven Days worked in close coordination with Aspenti as an incredible editorial partner in helping elevate the narrative of the committed work of Vermont’s Recovery Community partners.
With the launch of our new brand we shared our story and our mission of social impact, remaining open to opportunities on how to best contribute to the reduction of stigma surrounding Substance Use Disorder, an opportunity presented itself to us in the form of a challenge. That challenge was granted by Gene Richards, Director of Aviation at the Burlington International Airport. Earlier in the summer Aspenti purchased ad space at the airport to build awareness on our new brand and share the story of our company, once a pillar of the recovery community relaunched to a continue to serve. As we worked with Gene and the airport staff on the awareness campaign, Gene learned more about Aspenti’s social mission initiatives. Gene quickly became inspired and challenged us to collaborate with community members on how to turn a wing outside of the north terminal into a message of hope and change. Without a doubt in our minds, we accepted the challenge to transform the space.
We quickly got to work inviting a variety of recovery community members, behavior change experts, and city officials to a discussion group to best develop the message conscience Vermonters would hear and respond to.
The discussion group soon agreed;
Substance Use Disorder knows no race, lifestyle, economic status, age, or religion. The stigma surrounding Substance Use Disorder prevents many from seeking treatment as they believe they don’t fit the “junkie” or “addict” stereotype.
In close collaboration with our community partners, Aspenti developed the messaging;
“the only choice in addiction is how we choose to address it together.”
Vermonters are special. When our neighbors are stranded by tragedy we rally around them, whether it be hurricane Irene or the everyday occurrence of helping pull a car out of a snowbank in the middle of a Vermont winter. Unfortunately, the stigma surrounding Substance Use Disorder tends to alter the way people react to someone who may be suffering from an opioid addiction.
After months of coordinated work with community partners and the Burlington International Airport, “The Change Corridor” opened on Monday October 2nd. Proudly attending the opening were our community partners, our congressional leaders Senator Leahy and Congressman Welch and City of Burlington leaders Mayor Weinberger, Burlington Chief of Police Del Pozo, and Gene Richards.With almost no branding insight, “The Change Corridor” is a prime example of how Aspenti Health puts our community first in addressing our social mission. We focus our efforts on the welfare of our patients, collaborations with communities, and most importantly impacting measurable change. We invite everyone to take a few minutes of their day to stop at the airport, open to the public to observe the exhibit and how people react to a heartening message of choice. We invite everyone in the presence of the Change Corridor to reflect on how the messaging and reactions make us feel about our own views on Substance Use Disorder and if they align with other health issues plaguing the nation.
When we choose to engage we can make real change.
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[post_content] => The Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA) would save government payors an estimated $670 million, nearly 10 percent of the $7 billion that it currently pays annually for lab tests. In draft form, the proposed reduction in the fee schedule for clinical lab tests will significantly impact labs overall and the smaller, regional toxicology labs to an even greater extent. If the proposed reimbursement reductions are adopted, they will negatively impact how Aspenti Health will be able to provide services to our patients at the height of the opioid epidemic in America.
Aspenti Health ™ is a toxicology lab in Burlington, Vermont. Serving a rural state with a population of just over 600,000. Like most of the nation, we are in the grips of the opioid crisis with people suffering from substance use disorder. The combination of many of our patients residing in hard to reach rural communities and the state's limited economic base offers a host of complexities to care for the patients we serve and their struggles to reach long-term recovery. The Surgeon’s General Report cites “The Treatment Gap” as one of major contributors to the opioid crisis today. Two of the major causes of that gap are the inability to access care and lack of screening for substance misuse. Toxicology labs like Aspenti fill that very gap. Our patient service centers serve as collection locations increasing recovery services, testing access to rural communities, and critical checkpoints in our patient’s substance use disorder treatment plan. The PAMA draft rates would deter toxicology labs from expanding to ease access for those in rural America and only increase “The Treatment Gap” that contributes to this nation's opioid crisis.
Fault in the market representation PAMA used to calculate new pricing models
We believe the data collection process was severely flawed including:
I am reminded of an interaction with a colleague at a National Conference four years ago where I used the term “addict” during a conversation a small group of us were engaged in. Afterwards she approached me and pointed out that “we,” our profession, we're trying not to use pejorative or limiting terms any longer. She pointed out that the term “addict” limited the definition of the person to one aspect of the whole person and that “person-first-language” was more appropriate and not stigmatizing. She suggested I use the term “person with addiction” or “person with substance use disorder.”
I have been mindful of the language I choose ever since that afternoon, and I must say that there is a “softly spoken advocacy” present in many of my formal and informal conversations today as a result. This feels right to me.
Here are some examples of suggested changes in language from the Recovery Research Institute’s “Addiction-ary” you may be interested in:
Aspenti is a driving force for Patient Experience Excellence and proudly champions services that uphold the 5 Principles of Trauma Informed Care (TIC). How do we apply Trauma Informed Care to our collection Services?
First, let’s take a closer look at the 5 Principles of Trauma Informed Care:
Safety
Trustworthiness
Choice
Collaboration
Empowerment
Our services start with the Trauma Informed Care principles of Safety and Trustworthiness, in mind. Safety means that anywhere we provide services, each patient in our care should feel physically, psychologically, and emotionally safe during their collection.
Trustworthiness refers to providing a high-quality experience that protects a patient’s rights and their confidentiality. For all Aspenti services, including Telecollections, we use healthcare technology that our patients and providers can trust. For example, our telehealth healthcare application meets the highest industry standards for HIPAA compliance and full encryption. Aspenti also consistently achieves its high standards of care by providing a well-designed training program to each Client Care Assistant.
Our colleagues are trained on HIPAA protection, Professional Communication, Stigma Prevention, understanding their role in elevating the Patient Experience, and much more. We have created a framework for our team to uphold safety and trustworthiness with consistency.
Our organization also contributes to the last three principles of Trauma-Informed Care: Choice, Collaboration, Empowerment. We do this through innovation and listening with the intent to the patient’s voice. For years now, patients have shared with us their challenges around getting to a Patient Service Center for collections and fitting this process into their busy lives. An Aspenti survey, recently showed that out of 216 patients, 2/3 of them experienced these challenges before the pandemic. Fears around COVID-19 and viral exposure have only exacerbated this problem. To give patients choices and peace of mind, our designed and implemented thoughtful protocols for all our service sites that meet or exceed the highest COVID-19 safety standards and build upon the principles of Trauma Informed Care as well. We want the patients to feel safe, to trust our standards of care, and to feel good with their service options.
Aspenti is dedicated to creating innovate solutions that give patients and providers choices. When following a TIC model and collaborating with their patients on collection services, providers now have options. They can guide their patients to an Aspenti Patient Service Center, arrange Mobile Collections, or enroll them in our convenient at home Telecollections services. This empowers each patient to decide the where, when, and how of their collection.
Together with their providers, they can identify which option supports their specific care plan. Our team is proud to provide service innovations that help providers give their patients options that not only truly fit their lives but that support all 5 Principles of Trauma-Informed Care as well: Safety, Trustworthiness, Choice, Collaboration, and Empowerment.
This article was written by:
Alexa Brett, BAS HCML, COTA/L
Aspenti Health Director of Client and Patient Experience