RI Gen L § 23-17.26-3(a)

• As of January 2017, Rhode Island requires each hospital and freestanding, emergency care facility to submit to the Director of the Department of Health a comprehensive discharge plan.
• The law also contains several provisions that are specific to individuals who experience an opioid overdose. For example, with patient consent, a patient who presents with indication of SUD or opioid overdose must receive a substance abuse evaluation before discharge. If, after the evaluation, clinically appropriate inpatient or outpatient services are not immediately available, the facility must provide medically necessary services with patient consent until the facility can complete a transfer of care.
• The law requires that each patient presenting to a hospital or freestanding, emergency-care facility with an indication of SUD or opioid overdose receive information about the availability of clinically appropriate inpatient and outpatient services for the treatment of SUDs or opioid overdose, including detoxification; stabilization; medication-assisted treatment services; inpatient and residential treatment; licensed clinicians with expertise in the treatment of SUDs and opioid overdoses; and certified recovery coaches. Moreover, the law mandated that, by January 1, 2018, the Department of Health develop a strategy to assess, create, implement, and maintain a database of real-time availability of clinically appropriate inpatient and outpatient services. Once the database becomes available, the hospital or freestanding, emergency-care facility must provide real-time information to patients about the availability of clinically appropriate inpatient and outpatient services.

Rhode Island –  2019 — H 5383

RI Gen. L. § 23-17.26-3(a)(2)(iii)

• Amends the current law to include as part of the patient’s comprehensive discharge planning the notification of the patient’s emergency contacts and certified peer recovery specialists, as permitted with lawful patient consent.

RI S0139

• Each hospital and freestanding emergency-care facility shall submit to the director a comprehensive discharge plan that includes:
  • Evidence of participation in a high-quality, comprehensive discharge-planning and transitions-improvement project operated by a nonprofit, or
  • A plan for comprehensive discharge planning and information to be shared with patients transitioning from the hospital’s ED or emergency-care facility, including the adoption of evidence-based practices such as:
    • providing education in the hospital or freestanding, emergency-care facility prior to discharge
    • Ensuring patient involvement so that at discharge, patients and caregivers understand the patient’s conditions and medications and have a point of contact for follow-up
    • Attempting to notify the person(s) listed as the patient’s emergency contacts and recovery coach
    • Attempting to identify patients’ primary care providers and assisting with scheduling follow-up appointments
    • Coordinating and improving communication with outpatient providers
  • The discharge plan shall include recovery planning tools for patients with SUDs, opioid overdoses, and chronic addiction, as well as:
    • With patient consent, each patient presenting at a hospital or emergency-care facility shall receive a substance use evaluation
    • If clinically appropriate services are not immediately available, the hospital shall provide appropriate services until transfer of care
    • A physician in a hospital or freestanding emergency-care facility may administer buprenorphine or other narcotic drugs to relieve a patient of acute opiate-withdrawal symptoms, once a day for up to three days
    • Each patient presenting to a hospital or freestanding, emergency-care facility with indication of SUD, opioid overdose, or chronic addiction shall receive information about the availability of appropriate inpatient and outpatient services
  • The director of the department of health, with the director of the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals, shall disseminate information including:
    • Regulatory standard on introduction of a recovery coach during the pre-admission or admission process of a patient with SUD, opioid overdose, or chronic addiction
    • Evaluation standards for patients with SUD, opioid overdose, or chronic addiction
    • Discharge standards, recovery plan, and voluntary transition process for patients with SUD, opioid overdose, or chronic addiction
    • Best practices for patient screening, transfer, and referral to services