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| Clinicians' story: Withdrawal meds will come to town |
By: By SUZANNE ROOK, Senior Reporter
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Posted: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 9:41 pm
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NORTHFIELD — By summer’s end, there will be local options for those addicted to heroin and prescription painkillers, a move that has taken more than a year.
The city’s two medical entities, Northfield Hospital and Allina Medical Clinic, will work together to combat addiction, said hospital President Ken Bank.
An addiction medicine specialist, Charles Reznikoff, a physician at Hennepin County Medical Center, will soon hold regular office hours at the hospital clinic, while doctors at Allina will assist with counseling, to help addicts get to the root of their troubles.
Bank said Reznikoff is currently treating six Northfielders for addiction at HCMC.
That’s good news for addicts who’ve had to travel to the Cities for treatment, and authorities hope, will get help for those who’ve avoided treatment because of time and financial constraints.
The changes took time, said Northfield Hospital President Ken Bank, and it wasn’t always easy.
There have been charges that doctors and some hospital board members didn’t want addicts in hospital clinic waiting rooms, but Bank said, much of that was based on a misperception that those seeking treatment would need to wait for up to eight hours in clinics while undergoing treatment.
Board members, he said, never expressed such concerns to him.
Last year, the hospital had one physician who underwent training to prescribe buprenorphine, a medicine that eases withdrawal symptoms, but she has since left. Another doctor, a pediatrician, Bank said, has now been trained. Another of its staff pediatricians is set to take the course.
But pediatricians too often can’t see patients over 25, he said, and some young adults would rather be seen by a doctor more familiar with adult medicine.
Addiction medicine is a specialty, said Bank. “It’s not just giving them a pill and send them on their way.”
And, Bank said, buprenorphine isn’t the only option, something he says Reznikoff has stressed to hospital staff.
Addicts also need counseling to help them deal with the choices of the past and the future, said Dr. Gretchen Ehresmann, an Allina family practitioner.
The Allina clinic’s doctors, she said, are also working to train staff on the signs of drug abuse. And, she said, doctors will ask the simplest of questions: “Are you using drugs?”
Sometimes, she said, that’s all it takes for a patient to open up.
Ehresmann said Allina doctors also want to see what can be done to prevent addiction.
“What can we do to avoid that first use?”
— Suzanne Rook can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113.
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Even though there are not any buprenorphine (Suboxone) prescribing physicians in Northfield, there are 38 in a 40-mile radius. To find a physician, go to: www.naabt.org/local
To learn more about this treatment, go to naabt.org
There is also aPatient/Physician Matching System which has connected over 11,435 patients with at least one of 2,014 participating buprenorphine-prescribing physicians since 9/06.
The naabtList.org free online service lets patients reach out for help 24/7 with complete privacy.
Buprenorphine (brandname Suboxone) is a medication, combined with psychosocial therapy, which treats the medical condition of opioid addiction in the privacy of a physician’s office. FDA approved in 2002, this treatment has improved quality of life for patients and provided dignity to opiate addiction treatment.
More information: naabt.org