Evaluation of a Multi-Entry Point Addiction Care Model Integrating Emergency Department Peer Navigation, EMS Outreach, and Community-Based Medications for Opioid Use Disorder​

The opioid crisis remains a major public health challenge in New Jersey and across the United States. Emergency departments (EDs) and emergency medical services (EMS) are often the first point of contact for individuals experiencing overdose, opioid withdrawal, or untreated opioid use disorder (OUD), yet many patients do not engage in ongoing treatment after these encounters, contributing to repeated overdoses, hospitalizations, and preventable mortality.

University Hospital has developed a novel, multi-entry point addiction care model that integrates an Emergency Department Peer Navigator (EDPN) program with a EMS Mobile Integrated Health/Opioid Response Team (MIH/ORT). This model is highly innovative and, to our knowledge, has not been previously implemented in this form. It was conceptually inspired by mobile crisis response models used in psychiatric emergencies, adapting that framework to deliver rapid, community- and street-based addiction care. A key distinguishing feature is the integration of an Advanced Practice Nurse within a mobile EMS outreach team, enabling real-time clinical assessment, initiation of medications for OUD (MOUD), and linkage to care directly in the field.

This study will evaluate whether engagement in this integrated model is associated with improved outcomes among individuals with OUD using linked datasets from the iPHD system, including hospital discharge data, EMS encounter data, and mortality records. By linking these statewide datasets with program-level data, we will compare healthcare utilization, overdose events, and mortality between program participants and population-level comparison groups. Findings will inform scalable, data-driven strategies to reduce overdose mortality and improve equitable access to high-value addiction care