Emergency Department and Bridge Clinic Services (C5339): KORE/SOR III/Bridge

The Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE) seeks to expand and sustain a comprehensive, equitable recovery-oriented system of care to address opioid use disorder (OUD) and stimulant use disorder (StimUD) for all individuals throughout Kentucky. To achieve this aim, KORE and its partners commit to implementing a trauma- and resilience-informed care approach within a racial equity framework to reduce overdose deaths and increase equitable access to high quality, evidence-based prevention, treatment, and recovery support services that are culturally responsive. Informed by data on populations most in need, the KORE projects will focus on four primary populations with OUD and/or StimUD: 1) Opioid overdose survivors, 2) Pregnant and parenting, 3) Justice-involved, and 4) Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color. University of Kentucky Research Foundation (UKRF) with University of Kentucky HealthCare (UKHC) has developed a multidisciplinary approach to address the opioid epidemic through innovative treatment and prevention efforts. First, a hospital-based intervention will utilize a Bridge Clinic to link those who present for overdose at the Emergency Department (ED) or are hospitalized due to overdose or other opioid-related conditions to an outpatient transitional care clinic. Second, treatment access shall be expanded by initiating a community-pharmacy care delivery for Vivitrol. Third, through the HEALing Communities project, UKRF will address the opioid epidemic by disseminating prevention supplies to Local Health Departments who serve individuals with OUD.