Milwaukee County program will connect emergency room patients to addiction treatment

A new pilot program connecting emergency room patients with a substance use disorder to treatment launched last month.

The Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division is partnering with Froedtert Hospital and the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Department of Emergency Medicine on the program.

“There’s a pattern where folks are getting saved essentially but they’re not connecting to services,” said Mike Lappen, administrator of the county’s Behavioral Health Division. “We want to make sure we can do everything possible to make sure that they have that opportunity.”

The yearlong program, funded by $250,000 from the federal government, will serve about 100 patientsB

It will target opioid overdose victims and those identified as “drug seeking” when they’re in the emergency room, according to Lappen. He said the program will involve “an environment of warm handoffs.”

“As opposed to just giving someone a card, you’re actually making that person-to-person connection,” he said.

County staff will link patients to counseling and treatment services, including medication-assisted treatment, according to the county’s application for funding.

Lappen said the proposal came out of the work of the City-County Heroin, Opioid and Cocaine Task Force.