Temple Health hosted members of America’s Essential Hospitals for a site visit at Temple University Hospital-Episcopal Campus on Feb. 26, as part of the association’s Opioid Use Disorder Social Medicine Learning Collaborative, according to a Mar. 13 announcement. The collaborative includes 15 hospitals from across the country and aims to share strategies for addressing opioid use disorder and related social challenges.
The visit focused on learning about Temple’s Addiction Medicine Service Line and its partnerships with community organizations such as Project HOME, which manages the Inn of Amazing Mercy located on Episcopal’s campus. Patrick Vulgamore, Director of Temple Health’s Addiction Medicine Service Line, said, “The primary focus of the visit was to learn more about Temple’s Addiction Medicine Service Line and our connections with community based services like Project HOME—an organization working to end chronic street homelessness—which is managing the Inn of Amazing Mercy, located on Episcopal’s campus.”
The Inn provides a 62-bed recovery-based residence for previously homeless individuals who are connected to recovery services, case management, healthcare, education, and employment support. Vulgamore said that other hospitals in the collaborative were interested in how Philadelphia health systems and community organizations collaborate to address addiction and homelessness: “It’s a level of collaboration they haven’t seen in other cities. It’s working because we’re focused on partnering, rather than competing, with each other to achieve the best possible outcome for each patient.”
Temple Health leaders highlighted their HomeBASE team, which supports patients at all levels of care—including outreach through mobile vehicles—and their Certified Recovery Specialist team that provides peer support throughout the health system. During the tour, participants followed a HomeBASE participant’s journey through various hospital departments and met with staff including Sam J. Stern (Medical Director), Marcus Appolon (Nurse Manager), and Frank Evans (Director of Nursing).
Vulgamore concluded by saying, “Our team has been extremely effective in integrating substance use disorder treatment and longitudinal care services into an established healthcare system, and in providing community-based services in an area where, historically, those have been limited. It feels great to have recognition from other health systems across the nation that what we are doing at Temple Health and in Philadelphia is special. The fact that they are interested in replicating it in their own health systems and cities is even more gratifying.”
The event reflects growing national interest in integrated approaches to addiction treatment that combine medical care with social support.
