Munson Medical Center in Traverse City has been awarded a $400,000 grant from the Michigan Opioid Partnership to fund a pilot program designed to train and coordinate opioid treatment throughout the hospital.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Opioid Partnership, are looking to implement a treatment plan using U.S. Drug Administration-approved drugs to treat opioid addiction. The plan focuses on long-term treatment of addiction.
Chief Medical Officer for Munson Healthcare, Dr. Christine Nefcy said it is going to take ‘all hands on deck’ to combat the opioid problem statewide.
“This disease process knows no boundaries,” Nefcy said. “We suffer from it across the region, certainly in Traverse City just as much as everyone else. This is a very small step in what’s going to need to be a collaborative effort to address this issue at a state and national level.”
Nefcy said Munson Medical Center has been working on prevention of substance abuse disorders by working with their departments to decrease the number of opioid prescriptions.
With the grant, the hospital wants to raise awareness through education, and Nefcy said convey that the disorder is not a moral failing, but a clinical diagnosis.
Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak also received a grant. Together, the two grants total over $1.3 million.
If the pilot program is successful, additional hospital grants are expected to be announced in coming months.
