Inpatient detox coming to Pike County hospital

Staff
Adena and Recovery Council representatives gather for a picture outside Adena Pike Medical Center where a new inpatients detox program is underway. Picture, left to right, Lometa Smith, APMC Director of Nursing; Jennifer Crawford, Adena Licensed Social Worker; Angela Conley, The Recovery Council Nursing Supervisor and Amanda Cooper, Adena Inpatient Nurse Manager.

WAVERLY - Adena Pike Medical Center, in partnership with The Recovery Council, is set to begin a medically-assisted inpatient detoxification pilot program. This will be the first program of its kind in the region to help individuals with opioid addiction.

The inpatient medical-stabilization service will begin later this month, with patients being admitted to the hospital through The Recovery Council, a Waverly-based treatment facility.

“Adena and The Recovery Council identified the need for a medical detox program in the community,” said Dave Zanni, APMC Senior Operations Executive Officer. “Currently, patients with opioid use disorder have had to detox in jail, or if being helped by The Recovery Council, have had to travel pretty far away, sometimes across state lines, for medically-assisted detox. With APMC now a resource for The Recovery Council, their clients will be medically monitored appropriately while going through detox.”

Adena's program will begin with one patient its first week and slowly expand to providing detox services to five people at a time.

While at the hospital, patients will have access to medication to ease withdrawal, which often includes intense flu-like symptoms, and those with co-morbid diseases such as diabetes or high blood pressure can be more closely monitored during detox. The average hospital stay is expected to be three to five day. Following detox, patients return to The Recovery Council for substance abuse treatment.

“We want to help people manage their symptoms, so we can set them up for success,” explained Lometa Smith, MSN, RN, APMC director of Nursing. “When someone is going through a substance detox that is one of the things that turns them back to their addiction because of the symptoms they experience when they are not using.”

Adena Pike staff have gone through extensive training to prepare for the new service. In addition to clinical education, two patients in recovery visited the hospital to speak with staff, providing intimate details and understanding of what it is like to go through the detox process.

“We understand that we may have some patients that will need more than one detox admission,” Smith said. “Statistically, most clients are not successful their first time through. This population has a stigma around them and I think in the medical field we can become very jaded to that - especially when you are seeing clients multiple times through the facility. We want to make sure our caregivers understand and have compassion for these individuals; and to help them understand that someone does care for them, and we are here to support them.”

While initially Adena will only be working with the Recovery Council, the long-term plan would expand the service for referral from other treatment providers and expanding the program with the Greenfield hospital.

Expansion to the main campus in Chillicothe currently is not part of the plan. Ross County and Chillicothe has access to some outpatient detox programs called ambulatory detox and Scioto Paint Valley Mental Health Center has some inpatient detox available.