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The most successful substance use treatment organizations strike a careful balance between honoring the past and adjusting to a changing service landscape. Gateway Rehabilitation Center (GRC) remains a leader both in its western Pennsylvania region and nationally by embracing evidence-based practices while never losing sight of its strong foundation in 12-Step support.
As cookie-cutter treatment in the industry has given way to tailored, patient-centered care, GRC has refined a continuum-of-care model that tackles the health complexities and lifestyle needs that can stand in the way of patient success in treatment. Julia D’Alo, M.D., Gateway Rehab’s chief medical officer, discussed with us the comprehensiveness of the organization’s approach.
“To effectively do whole-person care, you have to stay close to the needs of the individual,” D’Alo said. That involves helping patients navigate the life challenges that can compromise progress, particularly during transitions between levels of care along the continuum. Like other pioneering organizations in the substance use treatment industry, GRC long ago moved beyond a historical perspective that at one time wedged all patients into a 28-day model of residential treatment.
“Gateway was founded on the principles of 12-Step Facilitation. We still live by that in many ways, but we have progressed with the times,” D’Alo said.
The organization embraces the directions shaped by the findings of evidence-based medicine. Research-backed medication treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) therefore have become an integral component of treatment. Buprenorphine remains the most prominent medication treatment for OUD in the organization, and Gateway also partners with an opioid treatment program so that some patients can receive methadone.
Gateway Rehab’s continuum of care encompasses withdrawal management, residential treatment and outpatient services. It is not uncommon for patients to progress across multiple levels of care over several months, with GRC’s interdisciplinary treatment team offering individualized assessment and ongoing feedback during important transitions in care. “Addiction is a chronic disease; it’s not an acute illness that’s cured with a single treatment episode or a medication,” D’Alo said.
Particularly when a patient is moving from residential treatment to outpatient care, Gateway Rehab staff concentrates on helping the patient navigate ongoing treatment amid work and family responsibilities. “How will treatment fit into their life?” D’Alo said. “We try to develop a plan early. We schedule their [outpatient] appointments before they leave a residential program.”
She said that as Gateway Rehab has continued to grow, it has enhanced its capacity to serve a patient population with increased medical complexity. A robust medical staff allows the organization to serve patients who need services such as advanced wound care or treatment for poorly controlled diabetes — these are patients who often encounter few viable treatment options for their problematic substance use.
Increasing demand for treatment for young people has also convinced the organization’s leaders to establish an adolescent residential program, scheduled to open soon.
For GRC, technology has served as an important vehicle for facilitating growth. D’Alo highly values the relationships she and colleagues have built with Sigmund Software during implementation of its EHR solution. Having a single electronic record has improved communication across departments, and this in turn has enhanced patient safety and outcomes, D’Alo said.
We at Sigmund are proud of the relationships we have built with organizations such as Gateway Rehab — industry leaders that remain mission-driven amid the new discoveries that emerge in this field every day.
