575-HOPE A technology solution to address Preparedness Response and Recovery from opioid and all types of addiction
| 575-HOPE A technology solution to address Preparedness Response and Recovery from opioid and all types of addiction | |
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 Hamilton County OH | |
| Team Organizations | Cincinnati Bell Findlocaltreatment.com Cordata Healthcare Innovations University of Cincinnati Addiction Services Council Brightview Health |
| Team Leaders | John Putnam |
| Participating Municipalities | Hamilton OH Cincinnati OH |
| Status | Ready for Public Announcement |
| Document | None |
Description
Integration of available resources and services related to addiction in Hamilton County Ohio in to a program to breakdown data silos, determine best practices, and improve outcomes. This includes a SMS text messaging platform branded “575-HOPE” to engage, inform, and educate those struggling with opioid addictions, and their caretakers. With the capability to proactively inform users that have interacted with the platform of emergency events, the AI-powered and callcenter backed application provides one point-of-entry for those in crisis, ongoing support for those in recovery, and a database of the journey of those individuals accessing services for evaluation by program providers and policy makers.
Challenges
Those struggling with opioid addictions, and their caretakers, who are desperate for help, lack access to resources whenever and wherever they need them – even though dozens of organizations are collectively spending millions of dollars to offer that much-needed support. At the same time, these organizations simply don’t have the time to coordinate with each other or evaluate data that might lead to a more strategic and cohesive approach to fighting the drug epidemic. Consequently, more than 529 people died from drug overdoses in Hamilton County OH, a 30% increase, in 2017. The area averages 50-70 overdoses a week. The situation is repeating itself across the country, where an estimated 72,000 opioid-related deaths occurred in 2017.
The statistics reflect two fundamental problems with the current strategy:
- Lack of an overarching platform to evaluate the trends and behaviors across the ecosystem of addiction support and recovery organizations.
- A need to aggregate resource availability and communication through a single point of entry.
Solutions
- Preparedness – 575-HOPE is a SMS text messaging platform utilizing both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a staffed call center to engage, inform, and educate those with addiction and their caregivers. It provides a proactive method to inform users of higher than normal strength drugs on the street, and also provides easy access to local treatment locations available for immediate admission.
- Response - This stage will make the Cordata Healthcare Innovations community care coordination software platform available to all response teams and treatment facilities in the county, and further support ongoing efforts to move and keep people in treatment.
- Recovery - Combining the 575-HOPE and Cordata software platforms to deliver SMS text messages to those struggling with addiction and their caregivers following discharge from treatment to improve effectiveness and success of recovery.
- Center for Excellence - We propose creating a Center of Excellence that will be based at the University of Cincinnati’s Institute of Crime Science. The Center of Excellence will serve as that much-needed “Hub” that aggregates data and best practices from each spoke, facilitates constructive collaboration among organizations, and helps develop actionable strategies going forward.
Major Requirements
- Establish Center for Excellence
- Industry expert groups meet to develop initial text messaging database of questions and responses for the Artificial Intelligence
- Increased staffing and training of call centers
- Establish legal terms and conditions for SMS text platform and for sharing information from 575-Hope SMS platform and Cordata software with the center of excellence.
- Integration of programing between 575-HOPE SMS platform and findlocaltreatment.com
- Integration of programing between 575-HOPE SMS platform and Cordata to facilitate recovery messaging and links to call center for post treatment follow up mechanism
- Establish advisory council for ongoing feedback and program modifications to include representatives from Hamilton County Heroin Coalition, Hamilton County Health Dept, local Law Enforcement, Treatment community and Recovery Community.
Performance Targets
| Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) | Measurement Methods |
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Hamilton County Ohio, including The City of Cincinnati, has three years of historic data related to EMS and Fire Department runs related to drug overdoses as well as their outcome. The goal of this initiative is to support efforts to reverse the alarming trends of overdose incidents and deaths, measured as a 10% reduction in EMS responses for the City of Cincinnati and a 5% reduction in opioid related overdose deaths. |
Data correlation will be measured by the number of text interactions, number of inquiries about treatment openings, increases in treatment utilization, recidivism rate reduction, and success rates for each form/type of treatment.
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Standards, Replicability, Scalability, and Sustainability
Since the 575-HOPE platform is SMS Text message based it can be implemented regionally and nationally quickly and easily. The platform doesn’t require users to have a data plan, is available to almost all phones as part of their basic service plan and the service is available even in the most remote rural areas. The only requirement is a local addiction services call center partner that affords a safety net for messages not answered by AI, and to provide pertinent local information. Demonstrated improvements in treatment standards, and reduced costs associated with overdoses could drive funding for expandability of the program in the future.
Cybersecurity and Privacy
The project budget includes $32k in ongoing professional legal engagement to help define privacy standards and process within the text messaging application. Those engaging through the platform will be given the ability to opt out of the research component for the sake of privacy, with those terms still to be specifically defined upon approval of funding.
Impacts
The program will quantify and improve treatment and recovery effectiveness. In addition it will have a direct monetary impact on police, fire, EMT, medical community, child support, and legal and incarceration budgets. Aa well as a reduction in HIV and HEP-A/B/C The cost for a 911 call for an OD without a transport to the ER is estimated to be $1,200 to $2,000 and the estimated medical cost of an overdose ER visit is $15,000, of which 55 to 85% are paid by the public. If conservatively using the 55% rate, an OD costs $8250 in public medical costs. The proposed program cost for Hamilton County Ohio is approximately $350k per year (without factoring in the cost of the Center for Excellence). With 2200 ER visits due to an overdose of drugs each year, a simple reduction of 42 OD’s that require transport to the ER per year would pay for the program in public medical savings alone. The breakeven point would be approximately a 1.9% reduction.
Demonstration/Deployment
- Phase #1 deployment in Hamilton County OH
- Phase #2 deployment in rural counties of Brown, Adams, Scioto, Lawrence and Gallia Ohio.
- Phase #3 deployment regionally to include 10 counties - Northern KY (Boone, Kenton and Campbell) and southwestern Ohio (Butler, Warren, Clermont, Preble, Montgomery, and Greene)