Federal Grant Helps Launch Program to Combat Opioid Crisis at UH

UH Cleveland Medical Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine and UH Connor Whole Health were awarded $1,499,899 in funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through its Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to develop and implement an Emergency Department Alternatives to Opioids (ED-ALTO) program. ED-ALTO will expand non-opioid therapy options for patients presenting to the ED with pain, aiming to improve patient outcomes and reduce opioid dependence.

Empowering Emergency Medicine Providers and Patients

At UH Cleveland Medical Center, new approaches to pain management are not only providing relief and enhancing wellbeing, but may also be key in overcoming the opioid crisis.

Opioid misuse continues to harm communities nationwide. More than 70,000 Americans suffered fentanyl-related deaths in 2023 – 3,579 of them in Ohio, according to the state’s Scientific Committee on Opioid Prevention & Education. Although the numbers mark a decrease from the peaks reached during the COVID-19 pandemic, they remain above pre-2020 levels.

As part of the White House’s National Drug Control Strategy, SAMHSA, part of HHS, has awarded $47.8 million nationally to programs designed to curb opioid dependency. UH is receiving nearly $1.5 million over three years to launch an emergency department (ED) alternatives-to-opioids (ED-ALTO) program and offer innovative, evidence-based pain management strategies.

New Program to Support Patients

The program will serve as a proof-point, demonstrating how ALTO techniques can treat patients’ pain and combat the opioid epidemic, even as UH cares for more patients presenting to the ED with varied healthcare needs.

Leaders of the program include Kiran Faryar, MD, MPH, Director of Research, Department of Emergency Medicine; Jennifer Horn, MS, BSN, RN, PMP, Project Manager, Department of Emergency Medicine; and Sam Rodgers-Melnick, MPH, LPMT, MT-BC, Integrative Health Research & Data Specialist, UH Connor Whole Health.

“Our emergency medicine team is so grateful and excited for the opportunity to launch this ED-ALTO program,” said Dr. Faryar. “Pain is the most common complaint we see. ED providers often feel they have limited treatment options, as many include medications that can have short- and long-term abuse potential. This award provides us an opportunity to train ED providers on non-opioids and launch these therapies in the ED to better serve our patients.”

Through the program, ED caregivers at UH Cleveland Medical Center will receive training on pain management therapies and medications for opioid use disorder. Caregivers will deploy integrative modalities such as music therapy and acupuncture within the ED and connect patients with outpatient follow-up care at UH Connor Whole Health, where they can receive evidence-based pain management services from leading experts in chiropractic care, massage therapy, acupuncture and lifestyle medicine.

“UH’s long history of practice-based research and clinical trials has demonstrated that acupuncture and music therapy can provide clinically significant pain relief and help patients better manage stress and anxiety associated with their health conditions,” said Rodgers-Melnick. “Now we can provide these modalities at critical moments when patients present to the ED with conditions such as sickle cell pain crises, musculoskeletal injuries, and abdominal pain.”

Caregivers and patients can also capitalize on current services and resources, including referrals to Thrive Peer Recovery, a local community-based organization that offers evidence-based peer support, and access to Substance Use Navigator Specialists on staff at UH Cleveland Medical Center.

“Using non-opioid therapies for pain relief is highly innovative in the field of emergency medicine,” said Dr. Faryar. This program will not only have a tremendous impact on our patients’ health and well-being, but will also pave the way for widespread incorporation of non-opioid therapies in the ED setting.”