Career Development Member Resources-How to Start Your Own Inpatient Addiction Medicine Consult Service

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The session explained how UC Davis Health built an inpatient addiction medicine consult service called the Substance Use Intervention Team (SUIT), supported by Substance Use Navigators (SUNS). The presenters defined SUIT as a multidisciplinary team of addiction medicine/medical toxicology physicians, pharmacists, fellows, residents, and navigators who diagnose withdrawal, start medications for opioid and alcohol use disorders, provide harm reduction, and connect patients to care.<br /><br />They argued that hospitals should create these services because substance use disorder is common among ED and hospitalized patients, often goes untreated, and is linked to longer stays, readmissions, staff frustration, and preventable overdose deaths after discharge. They showed evidence that consult services and navigators can reduce length of stay, readmissions, costs, and improve treatment engagement and provider satisfaction.<br /><br />The talk also covered how UC Davis launched the program, built hospital-wide support, created committees and order sets, expanded navigator staffing, and secured a physician FTE. Day-to-day operations include 24/7 consult coverage, mostly for opioid use disorder and buprenorphine or methadone initiation, plus alcohol use disorder treatment and selected complex cases. SUNS perform motivational interviewing, SBIRT, and warm handoffs to outpatient care.<br /><br />Overall, the message was that addiction consult services improve patient care, workflow, and hospital performance while addressing a major unmet clinical need.

Keywords

UC Davis Health

Substance Use Intervention Team

inpatient addiction medicine

Substance Use Navigators

opioid use disorder

alcohol use disorder

buprenorphine initiation

harm reduction

SBIRT