Applying Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes) to improve addiction care in rural emergency departments

BACKGROUND: Advancements in research and legislation have improved emergency provider ability to treat opioid use disorder (OUD), but dissemination into rural emergency departments (EDs) is limited. Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) allows community generalists to learn from specialists through telementoring. We aimed to use ECHO to facilitate knowledge translation, increase confidence, and change behavior of rural ED providers treating patients with OUD. METHODS: Stakeholder interviews were conducted with rural ED providers. A group of ED addiction experts created an ECHO curriculum with eight OUD topics. ED health professionals were recruited and completed pre/post surveys centered around knowledge and comfort with treating OUD in the ED, with focus on clinical practice and stigma. Following the ECHO model, sessions included a 20‐min didactic followed by two cases presented by participants, with discussion facilitated by faculty. RESULTS: Twenty‐seven participants registered; seven attended ≥75% of sessions and completed both surveys. Of the seven, three were physicians, two advanced practice providers, one nurse, and one clinical pharmacist. Eight 1‐hour sessions were conducted in two cohorts between January and December 2021. On a 5‐point Likert scale, respondents on average agreed with questions evaluating acceptability (mean ± SD 3.96 ± 0.64), appropriateness (mean ± SD 4.18 ± 1.18), and feasibility (mean ± SD 4.00 ± 1.17). Participants had a 1.09‐point increase (paired t‐test = 2.43, p = 0.05) on 7‐point Likert‐scale questions measuring self‐efficacy and a 0.13‐point change (paired t‐test = 2.64, p = 0.04) on 4‐point Likert scale questions measuring stigmatizing attitudes (reduction of attitudes). A total of 71% (5/7) reported changes in clinical practice and 57% (4/7) in departmental protocols after participation. CONCLUSIONS: Our ED OUD ECHO course successfully created a model for rural ED providers to learn from ED addiction experts. It was well received and impacted self‐reported provider stigmatizing attitudes, patient‐facing behavior, and departmental initiatives. Recruitment was challenging and participation was limited. Future efforts will target maximizing recruitment.