Christiana Care presents Project Engage at the White House

Christiana Care medical leaders traveled to the nation’s capital to present research on Project Engage to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Terry Horton, M.D., chief of Christiana Care’s Division of Addiction Medicine and medical director of Project Engage, and Claudine Jurkovitz, M.D., MPH, director of operations for the Christiana Care Center for Outcomes Research and senior physician scientist with Christiana Care’s Value Institute, presented data on Project Engage, which is carried out through a partnership with Brandywine Counseling and Community Services.

“I was encouraged to see that the White House is very engaged in understanding how best to identify and access care for those suffering from addiction. Our work at Christiana Care is helping to define best practice.”

Through Project Engage, health care professionals known as engagement specialists, who are peers in recovery, reach patients with substance-abuse problems at the hospital bedside — at the nadir of their addiction — and link them to resourcesin the community that put them on the path to wellness. Dr. Horton established Project Engage in 2008.

Dr. Horton said provisions in the Affordable Care Act have helped Project Engage thrive, because the law increases the number of people who will be eligible for health care under Medicaid in 2014, some of whom may need intervention and treatment services for substance-use disorders. The law also encourages health systems to focus on population health and the integration of care for those who have complex behavioral
and health needs.

“I was encouraged to see that the White House is very engaged in understanding how best to identify and access care for those suffering from addiction,” said Dr. Horton. “Our work at Christiana Care is helping to define best practice.”

Engagement specialists have reached nearly 3,000 patients at inpatient units and emergency departments of both Christiana Hospital and Wilmington Hospital.

Project Engage has led to an increase in patients who enroll in community-based drug-treatment programs, a reduction in
30-day readmissions among patients with substance-abuse problems and an average savings of $6,000 per patient when engagement specialists have intervened.