Care cascade for patients with opioid use disorder and serious injection related infections.

OBJECTIVES

To define the care cascade for patients with serious injection drug use related infections (SIRI) in a tertiary hospital system and compare outcomes of those who did and did not participate in an opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment referral program.

METHODS

The medical records of patients admitted with both OUD and SIRI including endocarditis, osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, epidural abscess, thrombophlebitis, myositis, bacteremia, and fungemia from 2016-2019 were retrospectively reviewed. Patient demographics, clinical covariates, 90-day readmission rates, and outcomes data were collected. We compared data from those who were successfully referred to outpatient care through Engaging Patients in Care Coordination (EPICC), a peer recovery specialist-run OUD treatment referral program, to those who did not receive outpatient referral.

RESULTS

During the study period 334 persons who inject opioids were admitted with SIRI. Fourteen admitted patients died and were excluded from the analysis. The all-cause readmission rate was lower among patients referred to the EPICC program (18/76 [23.7%]) compared to those not referred to EPICC (100/244 [41.0%]) (OR 0.44; 95% CI 0.25 - 0.80).

CONCLUSION

An OUD care cascade evaluation for patients with SIRI demonstrated that referral to peer recovery services with outpatient OUD treatment was associated with reduced 90-day readmission rate.