Mercy Health-Cincinnati launched a partnership to help patients enter addiction treatment programs more easily, according to a WCPO report.
Mercy Health is teaming up with 10 addiction treatment providers across the Cincinnati area that will provide long-term treatment and recovery options for patients. The partnership comes after Hamilton County, Ohio, recorded over 500 deaths potentially linked to opioids last year.
The partnership aims to help patients avoid the difficulties that often come with finding addiction treatment services, including long treatment wait lists, paperwork, medical tests and not knowing where to receive treatment.
Under the partnership, Mercy Health will provide short-term, hospital-based detox for patients before transitioning them to an outpatient provider for long-term medically assisted treatment. Mercy and its partner agencies will track the patient's progress from detox to treatment.
"Having the clout of a large health care organization like Mercy can really have a lot of influence over how the community thinks about the struggle of addiction," Jeffrey Bill, MD, physician at Sunrise Treatment Center in Cincinnati, told WCPO.