The Maine Medical Association Monday launched a new campaign to cut opioid overdose deaths by 1,000 over five years.
It's called the 1,000 Lives Campaign for Maine, under which past MMA president Dr. Erik Steele is urging every primary care practice to provide opioid-use disorder treatment. Steele also wants all emergency departments to offer buprenorphine to patients being treated for complications from addiction, and to provide the overdose-reversal drug naloxone when they're discharged.
"Many of my colleagues in health care are already doing this work. But they represent what I describe as islands of compassionate care, between which patients with this illness can fall and sometimes die," he said. "The goal of this campaign is to make Maine a state where anyone suffering from opioid use disorder can find compassionate, capable care for that illness wherever they are."
Steele said the campaign will measure progress by evaluating state overdose data and tracking expansions in treatment.
Nearly two dozen health care and professional organizations have joined the campaign so far. Last year, 723 Mainers died from a drug overdose. It was the third record-setting year in a row.
