The importance of continuity of care in successfully treating addiction cannot be overstated. Laguna Treatment Center in Orange County, Calif., has taken an innovative approach to maintaining patients’ engagement as they transition to a less intensive level of care, leveraging technology to keep individuals connected.
The American Addiction Centers state-licensed chemical dependency hospital has launched a virtual intensive outpatient program (IOP), offering three-hour evening sessions three times a week. Facility leaders had observed the need to improve aftercare outcomes for patients who had achieved substantial gains in the center’s residential program.
“We noticed with a lot of our inpatients who were discharging to other programs that there was some recidivism — they were coming back to us,” said Chris Cummins, Laguna Treatment Center’s chief operating officer. “Some would decline aftercare entirely. … We knew that if someone could continue along the same program, the odds of success would become higher than if someone received disjointed treatment.”
Partnering with step-down facilities is an essential part of the continuum of care. But it’s also true that when a patient has successfully developed meaningful therapeutic relationships during a challenging time in inpatient treatment, it can be daunting to have to build rapport all over again at another facility.
Offering discharged patients a virtual IOP option presents many advantages. It eliminates transportation barriers for individuals living in remote areas. It can boost engagement for patients who struggle with social anxiety in a traditional group setting. And it allows for easier navigation of treatment, work and family obligations. Cummins said that with hybrid business models having emerged in most industries, behavioral health needs to catch up to the trend.
The virtual format also offers numerous benefits to a treatment organization, reducing the need to identify a physical location for the program and eliminating many site-related operational costs, Cummins said.
The same group facilitator who had been running Laguna Treatment Center’s inpatient groups is coordinating the virtual IOP sessions, offering patients a familiar and welcoming face as they negotiate the challenges of a care transition. Cummins said the facilitator also has brought to the work a significant familiarity with the Sigmund Software EHR solution that the center uses for patients at each of its levels of care. “He was familiar with how notes were documented and what master treatment plans looked like,” Cummins said.
He added, “I have used a lot of EHR programs, and Aura is one of if not the most user-friendly.”
Laguna Treatment Center intends to keep the IOP group size relatively small for now, at 12 to 15 participants. While most of the patients are stepping down from a residential stay in the organization, some are direct admissions who did not meet criteria for inpatient treatment.
Some of the metrics the center will be using to evaluate the virtual IOP’s impact include session attendance rates, program departure rates against clinical advice, and overall engagement in continuing care. Leaders report a highly motivated patient group in the early implementation of the program.
“Aura has been the strongest partner in this,” Cummins said. “Sigmund has made it very simple for us.”
