At the meeting at Cooper: (l to r) NJ Human Services Commissioner Sarah Adelman, Kaitlan Baston, MD, medical director of Addiction Services at Cooper, and ONDCP Director Rahul Gupta, MD.
On February 21, as part of an extended visit to New Jersey, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Dr. Rahul Gupta along with New Jersey Human Service Commissioner Sarah Adelman visited Cooper University Health Care.
Cooper was first in the nation to have all its Emergency Department physicians to receive X-Waivers allowing them to prescribe buprenorphine outside of federally registered opioid treatment programs. This has allowed many Cooper patients to get this treatment right away to reduce future overdoses. Cooper EMS was the first program in the nation to provide buprenorphine to overdose patients on emergency calls.
While at Cooper, Dr. Gupta and Commissioner Sarah Adelman joined Cooper leaders and health care providers in a roundtable discussion of medication assisted treatment (MAT) and its success at Cooper. They also discussed the removal of X-Waiver requirement for physicians, which will remove barriers to treatment, and highlighted successful initiatives that have improved substance use disorder treatment in the community.
“We are happy to see Cooper leading the way in this public health crisis,” said Dr. Gupta. “In this epidemic, our goals at the federal level are to expand policy efforts and the public health approach to treatment. I commend Cooper for the work you have done and for developing new models of care that will be able to be replicated elsewhere.”
“On behalf of the Murphy Administration, I want to thank Cooper University Health Care for the truly groundbreaking and lifesaving work you are doing each and every day,” said Sarah Adelman, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services. “With Cooper as our southern state-designated MAT Center of Excellence, we have a tremendous partner that is breaking down barriers and building trust and support among providers to serve the community and those who need it most.”
“We are honored to host this visit today, and we thank Dr. Gupta and his team and Commissioner Adelman and the entire Murphy administration for all the work that has been done on the state and federal levels, which has allowed Cooper to lead this work, piloting innovative programs that have led to the new evidence-based practices here and nationally,” said Kaitlan Baston, MD, MSc, DFASAM, medical director of Addiction Services and The Center for Healing at Cooper.
Cooper, a leader in addiction services, established The Center for Healing, a comprehensive and integrative approach to pain management, addiction, and behavioral health care. Services include inpatient addiction consultation, outpatient addiction treatment, and an innovative perinatal substance use disorder program for pregnant women. The Center for Healing is recognized by the State of New Jersey as a Medication-Assisted Treatment (NJ MAT) Center of Excellence for Substance Use Disorder and now offers education, training, mentoring, collaboration, and networking across Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Mercer, Ocean, and Salem counties in NJ and across the United States.
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