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ASAM Released New COVID-19 Guidelines for Addiction Treatment Providers. Here's the Highlights.
On September 19th, ASAM (American Society of Addiction Medicine) announced their new pandemic guidelines for providers. Their “Caring for Patients During COVID-19 Task Force” created the guidelines as an expansion of pre-existing recommendations the agency made to addiction treatment providers earlier on in the pandemic. The new guidelines touch on some old themes but also cover a lot of new ground worth considering, especially in the sections on drug testing protocol and incident command structure.
At Behave Health, we look to industry leaders like ASAM for guidance on how to address COVID-19 in the addiction treatment setting. Today, we’ll cover some of the highlights of the new ASAM guidelines and consider their usefulness for addiction treatment providers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
ASAM’s New Guidelines for Addiction Treatment Professionals are Pretty Expansive But They’re Not Legally Binding
The guidelines released in September cover a lot of ground. Broken down into 15 different sections, the guidelines touch on everything from acute hospital settings protocols to clinician wellbeing to online support group etiquette. The website allows you to easily navigate to the sections that are most relevant to your facility’s level(s) of care.
Here’s a few of the ASAM guidelines’ subheadings:
Infection mitigation in outpatient settings and residential treatment facilities
Adjusting drug testing protocols
Access to care in opioid treatment programs
Support group participation
Managing justice-involved persons with addiction
Ongoing management of the continuum of addiction care
Although ASAM speaks authoritatively on what should - and should not - be going on in addiction treatment centers during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are quick to note in their new guidelines that they are simply for “informational and education purposes” only. ASAM frequently refers readers back to their local health authorities for the final word on how to safely operate addiction treatment centers during the pandemic. They’re careful to note that each safety measure should be considered on a case-by-case basis depending on how severe the outbreak is in any given community.
ASAM’s COVID-19 Pandemic Drug Testing Recommendations for Addiction Treatment Providers are Very Conservative
One of the biggest changes in ASAM’s new guidelines is its updated approach to drug testing. The society strongly cautions against any routine drug testing that does not have direct consequences for the way addiction treatment providers deliver care to that patient. In other words, if the care plan for the patient would be the same regardless of the results of a test, then ASAM wants you to skip the test.
In explaining their reasoning for this conservative approach, ASAM points to reports that COVID-19 is infectious in both feces and urine and that redundant testing is not only an unnecessary risk to providers, but also an unneeded strain on laboratory operations that might be already stressed with coronavirus-related work. ASAM also points out that unnecessary drug testing requires the use of scarce PPE and may pose a threat to our already strained medical supply chains.
Instead of traditional urine-based drug testing, ASAM recommends addiction treatment providers investigate more “socially distanced” drug testing options, such as home breathalyzers that can be monitored via telehealth.
ASAM Recommends Creating an Incident Command Structure for Your Addiction Treatment Center During COVID-19
ASAM’s new guidelines also call for creating an “worse case scenario” plan for how your addiction treatment center will continue essential operations if one or more of your key staff members falls ill. Called an “incident command structure,” this plan would outline which staff members can take over what essential responsibilities of their colleagues. It’s very similar to the contingency planning we’ve discussed elsewhere on this blog. ASAM also recommends cross-training staff members to perform essential functions ahead of time, to prepare for any unforeseen sick leave and staff shortage. For example, more than one staff member at your addiction treatment center should know how to unlock the doors, disable alarms, and access medicines and emergency supplies.
We’re Here to Help
If you feel overwhelmed by ASAM’s new guidelines, you’re not alone. Many addiction treatment professionals are reeling from the vast array of changes COVID-19 has made in our professional lives. The rules of the game have changed - at least temporarily - but we’re helping addiction treatment providers all around the country tame the chaos with smart, simple tools designed especially for the behavioral health community as it exists today. Our pandemic-ready software solution is intuitive, simple, and—as our users like to say—“it just works.”
Claim your free trial today and see how we can help make this difficult time a whole lot easier for your treatment center business.
New! Pandemic Management Tools Designed Especially for Addiction Treatment Centers
As part of our Summer 2020 Update, the team at Behave Health is excited to announce the roll out of some thoughtful new tools for managing the pandemic at your addiction and mental health treatment center.
2020 has thrown quite a lot at the addiction treatment community. The pandemic has tested us in ways we could never expect. We’ve had to try new approaches to connecting with our patients as well as new approaches to keeping our patients safe while in treatment.
On this blog, we’ve written about how as many as 5% of addiction treatment centers may close by the time the pandemic is over. We’ve also covered the need for treatment centers to pivot to intensive outpatient programs where inpatient programs have been the norm, especially in the areas hit hardest by the pandemic. Many centers are facing business reorganizations spurred by the Small Business Reorganization Act, while others are changing protocols to allow for proper social distancing in their facilities.
The common thread among all centers right now is CHANGE.
In order to help foster a productive and efficient environment amid all of the chaos, we’ve developed some simple tools to help your center deal with the pandemic and mitigate program risks associated with the Coronavirus.
Read on to learn about the top three features we’ve added in the Summer 2020 Update that can help your center thrive during these difficult times.
We’ve Included COVID-19 Questions on the Addiction Treatment Application Form
Now your organization can easily screen new admits for COVID-19 risk factors when they fill out our customizable online application.
Accessible from any device at any time, our cloud-based application allows your new admits to initiate treatment without waiting. We know that it’s vitally important to be ready and available for patients in moments of willingness to change - and we know that those windows of opportunity can be fleeting. Our online application lets new admits complete their application from their phone at any time, day or night, removing one of the key barriers to treatment for every patient.
Our new application forms’ COVID screen questions include:
Are you at risk for exposure to any communicable disease, or have you been in contact with someone who has?
Are you experiencing shortness of breath, coughing, fever, or other symptoms of Coronavirus and/or flu?
Are you at risk for exposure to Coronavirus?
Have you traveled outside of the country in the last 30 days?
Taking Temps to Screen for COVID at your Addiction Treatment Center? We’ve Got You Covered
Our Summer 2020 Update makes it easy to include temperature information on the Vital Signs portion of every patient’s EHR. No more scattered sticky notes with temperature logs. Access all of your temperature information in one place, alongside all other vital signs where it belongs.
We’ve Added COVID-19 Test Results to Our Communicable Disease Testing Roster
Sometimes things that should be simple aren’t simple at all. A lot of EHR users complain that there’s nowhere to add COVID-19 test results in their EHR because the test is new. There’s just no “box” to put the information. What ends up happening is that clinicians add results in the “comments” or “notes” section of whatever program they were using to record health information. The result? Inconsistent records and a lot of aggravation.
Our Summer 2020 Update is determined to get you to stop hiding COVID-19 test results in your EHR. We’ve added COVID-19 testing to our communicable disease test section. Simply add the date of the test and the result - positive or negative - and extra comments you may have about the test. There’s also room to add an attachment - like an official test result print out - to the COVID-19 test result record.
Simple, clean, easy.
Behave Health: We’re Here to Help Your Addiction Treatment Center Succeed
As always, we at Behave Health take our lead from you - our users in the addiction treatment and behavioral health treatment community.
Have we missed something? Got a suggestion? It’s our mission to make life easier for the addiction treatment community, so let us know how we can help!
Not a Behave Health user yet? We’d love to show you how our all-in-one software solution can help save your addiction treatment center time and money. Claim your free trial today.