Bright Heart Health and Community Hospital of Monterey Peninsula discuss the implementation of opioid agonist therapy (OAT), focusing on how telemedicine can ease OAT initiation. Leaders at Bright Heart Health, which provides access to substance use disorder specialists through a telemedicine platform, discussed how their providers can serve as remote consultants and prescribe to patients on discharge. Local physicians described how telemedicine has been incorporated into their hospital practice, offered insight into barriers they have faced, and discussed the solutions that have opened the door to increasing access to care.

Patients with opioid use disorder are frequently hospitalized with complications from the condition, yet don’t receive treatment for their underlying disease. This is a missed opportunity that leaves patients at high risk of future overdose. These hospitalizations are an ideal opportunity to start effective medication treatment for addiction and connect patients to ongoing outpatient services.