Temple Health is known for pioneering programs that provide patients with exceptional care while also addressing barriers to treatment. That innovative work has made Temple an integral member of America’s Essential Hospitals: the leading association for nearly 400 hospitals dedicated to providing exceptional care for all, including those facing social and economic challenges.
For the last two years, Temple University Hospital has participated in the association’s Opioid Use Disorder Social Medicine Learning Collaborative: a grant-funded project involving 15 hospitals from across the country, including Brown University Health, the University of Virginia, the University of South Florida, and UC San Francisco.
As part of the collaborative, participating hospitals traveled to TUH-Episcopal Campus for a site visit on February 26. “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,” explains Patrick Vulgamore, MPH, Director of Temple Health’s Addiction Medicine Service Line.
The Inn is a 62-bed recovery-based residence for previously homeless Philadelphians, who either came in from the street or after completing inpatient programs. Residents are connected to recovery services, case management, support, and healthcare, as well as on-site education and employment services.
Community-Based Collaboration
“Throughout the learning collaborative, the other hospitals have been very interested in how all of Philadelphia’s large health systems and community benefit organizations work together to solve the complex issues of addiction and homelessness,” Vulgamore says. “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”
For Temple, that’s meant building a community-based team that can meet people with substance use disorder where they are. “Our HomeBASE team provides support at all levels of care and in the community, even streetside with our Begin the Turn mobile vehicle,” Vulgamore explains.
During the site visit, Director of Recovery and Engagement Gloria Gonzalez and Housing Advocate Lucy Gehan reviewed how Temple connects individuals with recovery programs, develops care plans, and continues to support them after discharge. Gonzalez discussed how her Certified Recovery Specialist team—which provides peer support, substance use intervention, patient advocacy, and linkage to resources—is embedded throughout the Health System, including in outpatient services, meaning patients can access support the moment they need it and ensuring they see the same faces throughout their treatment journey, which builds trust.
Learning collaborative participants also went on a tour that tracked the journey of a HomeBASE participant, which included the Emergency Department, the Crisis Response Center, the Substance Use Disorder Clinic, and the opioid respite beds at the Inn of Amazing Mercy. At each stop, Temple Health leaders—including Sam J. Stern, MD, Medical Director of the Addiction Medicine Service Line; Marcus Appolon, BSN, RN, PMH-BC, Nurse Manager of the Crisis Response Center; and Frank Evans, Director of Nursing for the Intermediate Medical Care Unit—answered questions from attendees looking to apply what they had learned at Temple to their own health systems.
“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,” Vulgamore says. “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.”