The Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program's Division of Research Perinatal Research Unit has made a major commitment to the quantification of perinatal substance abuse and to working with the Early Start Program, an obstetric-clinic based substance abuse treatment program. Specifically, researchers and clinicians have joined in a mutually satisfying collaboration with the goal of assisting Early Start with database development and report generation in addition to evaluating Early Start in terms of neonatal outcomes and cost effectiveness. A comprehensive database has been developed which includes prenatal substance use screening questionnaire responses from over 30,000 pregnant women, results of individual substance abuse risk assessments by Early Start Specialists (therapists who assess and treat substance abusing women), follow-up treatment visit data collected by the Specialists, and toxicology screening data. Reports are generated regularly providing feedback to the Early Start Specialists, including weekly reports which identify pregnant women with positive toxicology tests and biannual reports summarizing universal toxicology screening results by clinic. These reports provide data on the prevalence of substance use in the prenatal population at each clinic as well as inform decisions concerning resource allocation and patient care. The researchers' expertise in program evaluation has been utilized to study the effectiveness of Early Start in terms of neonatal outcomes. The quantification of perinatal substance abuse will permit us to make estimates of the excess costs to the Health Plan associated with perinatal substance abuse, as well as potential savings associated with fewer poor outcomes among patients treated by Early Start.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this presentation, the participant will recognize the value of collaborations between clinicians and researchers
Keywords: Substance Abuse Treatment, Collaboration
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.