CareConnect: Adapting a Virtual Urgent Care Model to Provide Buprenorphine Transitional Care

Medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) such as buprenorphine are the gold standard for treatment of OUD, but patients face many barriers accessing these medications. To address this gap, a team at Penn Medicine leveraged new regulatory flexibilities during the Covid-19 pandemic that allow for virtual prescribing of buprenorphine. Their goal in establishing the model, called CareConnect, was to provide same-day, high-quality, short-term buprenorphine treatment as well as linkage to longitudinal care. CareConnect includes trained clinicians who provide OUD care integrated into a broader virtual urgent care practice. The program is enhanced by a substance use navigator team that assesses patients, supports patients and clinicians throughout a patient's care journey, and links patients to longitudinal OUD care programs based in primary care or specialty behavioral health. In this article, the authors describe the development and implementation of this novel program to treat OUD embedded within an existing telehealth urgent care program. Penn Medicine's work shows that buprenorphine telehealth prescribing can be adopted by generalist clinicians. The substance use navigator support is a critical element to fill gaps and overcome barriers to care in the community and health system.