How can I find same day Suboxone treatment near me?
When it comes to starting Suboxone (sublingual buprenorphine/naloxone), you may find that you will have to wait to get in to see a doctor at the local Suboxone clinic. This can vary depending on where you live.
In some cities, you can get an appointment the same week. Other areas have waiting periods as long as six months to see Suboxone doctor for medication assisted treatment. The problem is that when you need help with opioid addiction, you need help right away.
Why is it so difficult to get opioid addiction treatment quickly? Is there such a thing as a Suboxone treatment clinic that sees patients the same day they call for an appointment? Patients need access to same day Suboxone therapy, for better overall results.
Why are emergency room doctors not helping?
To be allowed to prescribe Suboxone, a doctor has to be certified with the federal government as a prescriber. Many ER doctors are not certified to prescribe Suboxone.
However, federal law does allow ER doctors to prescribe up to three days of Suboxone, even without certification. Yet, still, many emergency physicians refuse to prescribe even a one day supply.
If only Emergency physicians were more willing to initiate buprenorphine treatment which a new patient present with an opioid dependency issue. The hospital ER is an ideal place to help people get started in an opioid treatment program.
The problem is in the follow-up care.
When an ER doctor starts treatment, they want to know that the patient will be able to continue it. The problem with giving a patient only three days of Suboxone is that, if they do not have a clinic to go to right away, they will be back at the ER in three days.
Rather than having this issue, most ER doctors would prefer not to start treatment if they know that the patient will not be able to get into a clinic for continued treatment right away. If an ER doctor was confident that the patient would be able to start right away in a Suboxone treatment program, they would be more willing to administer sublingual buprenorphine to patients to help relieve withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings.
Studies support starting a Suboxone treatment program as soon as possible, ideally as soon as someone with an opioid use disorder presents to an emergency department or addiction treatment center. In order to best support recovery success, the treatment option of providing immediate access to appropriate addiction medicine is essential.
Bangor, Maine solves the problem.
What if clinics were able to treat opioid dependence with either methadone or buprenorphine for all patients who presented with opioid substance abuse, on the same day? Instead of an outpatient drug rehab placing excessive requirements and waiting periods for new patients with active drug abuse problems, why not allow them to start medical treatment immediately?
Many patients arrive at behavioral health facilities with a need for this addiction resource, medication-assisted treatment, and they are either turned away, due to lack of space, or made to wait days to get started. At least one mental health facility is providing a model that Suboxone treatment centers should consider adopting.
Several years ago, Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC), at their Union Street Center clinic in Bangor, Maine, decided to start offering same-day access to buprenorphine/naloxone. This was a big step because, previously, patients had to wait to get into a clinic and then go to psychotherapy first before starting Suboxone. PCHC decided that it was more important to provide high-risk patients with immediate access to life-saving medication rather than make them wait.
Here is how to make fast access to Suboxone possible.
To make same-day access to Suboxone possible, PCHC had to ensure that they had enough doctors to provide care. Each doctor can only see a limited number of patients. It took time and a substantial commitment to make this dream a reality.
While psychotherapy with a psychologist or addiction counselor is important, Suboxone doctor counseling is also useful for patients to help promote better addiction recovery. Why not let the doctors writing the prescription also provide recovery counseling to their patients?
Opening up capacity in the community helps ERs.
With more doctors available in an organized program, committed to providing fast access to Suboxone, ER doctors in the area can now confidently prescribe short-term sublingual buprenorphine tablets or films to their patients, knowing that they will be able to continue with their treatment. Making more capacity and faster access to Suboxone treatment centers is critical to encouraging more ER doctors to offer Suboxone, Subutex, or ZubSolv to opioid overdose patients, or patients presenting with an opioid addiction.
Bangor, Maine, should inspire other communities.
Building this new program in Maine was a huge accomplishment. Unfortunately, patients still suffer without access to treatment in other areas of the country. It is time for local governments around the US to get on the same page and realize that providing access to medication-assisted treatment with Suboxone is a good idea. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, community health-care systems can study existing programs elsewhere to see how to implement a plan that works. Making Suboxone available quickly to the patients who need it most will save lives and help these patients to overcome their addictions and become productive members of their community.
For communities where this model of same day Suboxone treatment is not feasible, with support from local government, online Suboxone treatment organizations may be able to provide this missing service. An online Suboxone doctor is able to provide Suboxone prescribing and counseling via an online video calling platform.
Suboxone Telemedicine is even better than the concept of Drive-Thru Suboxone.
There are many benefits to telehealth care, including faster appointment times, and easier access, because the patient does not have to drive, or walk, to a local Suboxone clinic and wait in line. Telemedicine Suboxone therapy can fill the gap, until other local communities are able to build their own programs that are able to provide same day Suboxone treatment to all patients who need it.
Is it possible that drive-through Suboxone treatment, like at a fast food drive thru service line will someday be a reality? Could patients possibly line up at clinics in their cars, like at a Chick-Filet restaurant? While drive thru may seem appealing to some people, we may have already moved beyond the fast food model, with the much more personal connection of Suboxone telemedicine.
At this time, patients are already seeing their Suboxone doctor in their cars, yet they are simply using their car as a place of complete privacy, while conversing with their doctor on a video call. At the end of the visit, the patient has the option to use their pharmacy’s drive thru window to pick up their buprenorphine/naloxone prescription.
