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Best Practices

Accomplishments of Baltimore's Target Cities Project

• Development and implementation of a Centralized Intake and Referral Management Information System (CIRMIS) linking over 60 treatment programs, human service providers and criminal justice agencies. The system is an efficient and effective method of determining treatment slot availability, making referrals, tracking clients and collecting demographic and treatment data.
• Establishment of primary health care centers at five substance abuse treatment programs.
• Development of a substance abuse education program for primary care physicians administered by the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland.
• Development of an acupuncture substance abuse treatment program at the Baltimore City Detention Center for male and female offenders.
• Coordination of the Maryland One Church - One Addict Project, a state-wide effort to educate faith communities about substance abuse and support services for recovering addicts.
• Special initiatives including: substance abuse training for Head Start personnel; job readiness training and employment placement for recovering addicts; continuing education for treatment program staff; training on managed health care and provider networks for program directors.

Buprenorphine Prescription Training for Physicians

bSAS, in a first-ever collaboration between local government, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), and private industry, is funding a new online training program that will enable eligible physicians in Baltimore City to acquire the a waiver to prescribe Buprenorphine in an office-based practice. 

“I urge all primary care doctors and psychiatrists  working in the city to learn to prescribe this effective  treatment for the lethal illness of opiate addiction,” said  Baltimore Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, M.D.  “The training is free, it’s online, and it will help you save lives.”

Nora Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said, “Buprenorphine represents a health services delivery innovation for opiate addicted individuals because it can be administered in the privacy of a doctor’s office.... Baltimore’s commitment to widespread availability of physician training in  treatment protocols will not only increase accessibility to Buprenorphine, it is also likely to prompt earlier attempts to obtain treatment.”

ASAM Executive Vice President/CEO Eileen McGrath, J.D., said, “We see this as a model of best practice that can efficiently and cost effectively be replicated with Health Departments across the country to significantly address existing treatment gaps.”