Improving Patient Outcomes Through Fully Integrated Peer Recovery Support Services

As hospitals and health systems across the country seek to address the ongoing increase in patients visiting emergency rooms with substance use disorder(SUD), many have begun implementing some form of peer-based recovery support services (Bagley et al., 2019; Holland et al., 2021). But few organizations have taken full advantage of the resource, instead designing programs that only utilize on-call peer recovery specialists or employ them solely during normal business hours. With the need for comprehensive SUD care plans and protocols growing increasingly urgent, how can hospitals best fully incorporate peer recovery specialists into their care teams to best serve their patients?In this session, a team of multi-disciplinary specialists from RWJBarnabas Health’s Institute for Prevention and Recovery (IFPR) will describe how and why a peer recovery model that integrates Recovery Specialists as full-time members of the care team in both emergency department and inpatient settings improves patient outcomes. Also outlined will be lessons learned and key findings based on intensive follow-up protocols post-discharge and the connection to community-based resources. The group will share key learnings from the implementation of IFPR’s Peer Recovery Program as documented in a first-of-its-kind study published by The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.The Peer Recovery Program at IFPR, which began in 2016 and has since expanded across all system hospitals, is unique in that its Peer Recovery Specialists are employed at hospitals 24/7 and are fully integrated into the clinical care team. Moreover, the technology-based advancements developed in this program, such as the HIPAA-compliant mobile app and automatic electronic health record triggers that notify Recovery Specialists of patients who may need support in real time based on eleven different criteria, have advanced the field of recovery support services and can be applied as an innovative solution for other specialties. Supplementing the study findings with new IFPR data from the last year, the team will outline specific opportunities for improving effectiveness of peer recovery programs nationwide and explain how their proposed model yields more referrals and more effective continuity of care for patients with SUD. Presenters will share process measures and metrics, including patient acceptance of continued recovery support services, treatment referral rates, and median response time from referral to Recovery Specialist arrival, and provide a roadmap for other care providers looking to establish similar programs.IFPR is a leader in creating the systems and services necessary to improve the health of communities throughout New Jersey. For over 30 years, IFPR has provided substance use disorder prevention programs, nicotine and tobacco treatment, innovative recovery support and social care services, taking a systems change approach to address social determinants of health and enhance care delivery systems throughout RWJBarnabas Health and New Jersey’s communities. IFPR is the largest provider of hospital-based peer recovery services in the United States and the largest provider of free tobacco and nicotine treatment services in New Jersey.