Nashville Addiction Clinic Opening

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville has unveiled a part-time opioid clinic to accompany its emergency room, reports Nashville Public Radio. This addition to Nashville’s largest hospital will operate one day a week, and the hospital’s emergency doctors will begin prescribing buprenorphine treatments on July 1. Previously, those suffering from opioid addiction were just given the phone number of opioid rehab clinics in the city before being sent on their way. Both the prescription of buprenorphine and access to treatment in the hospital’s clinic are designed to more effectively introduce patients to opioid recovery. University and hospital leaders hope that the clinic can join medical treatment to addiction treatment, as addiction psychiatrist Dave Marcovitz says, “The bottom line is that we want to make addiction care synonymous with medical care.” The clinic is not the end destination for opioid treatment, however, because it sends patients along into a three-month outpatient treatment program on Vanderbilt’s campus.

To learn more about buprenorphine treatment, look here. To find an opioid treatment center or doctor in Tennessee, look here or here.