sign that says hrbc with an arrow pointing to the left, in a hallway of a medical office

The Harm Reduction and Bridges to Care, or HRBR, provides immediate, spirit-saving medicament to people suffering from addiction while also helping from each one patient form a long-term plan for continuing their forethought at a primary or specialty clinic in their community. (OHSU/Kristyna Wentz-Graff)

UPDATE – This story was updated September 24, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, OHSU is providing access to the Scathe Reduction and Bridges to Care clinic through telehealth. Call 503-494-2100 to schedule an appointment or call in the clinic's website for more info.

In response to the internal opioid epidemic, Oregon Wellness & Scientific discipline University has opened a new clinic that provides like-day, walk-in get at to buprenorphine, a tested medicine to cover opioid use disorder.

The new clinic began operating Oct. 28 and is open up weekdays from 4 to 7:30 p.m. in the Physicians Pavilion on OHSU's Marquam Hill Campus.

The goal is to increase access to drug treatment by removing common barriers. Many treatment programs require patients to hold off for an intake fitting, attend counseling sessions, or commit to abstinence from all drugs and alcohol before beginning treatment.

OHSU's clinic is designed As an imperative answer to an epidemic that is killing an average of five Oregonians every week from overdoses.

Jessica Gregg, M.D., Ph.D.

Jessica Gregg, M.D., Ph.D.

"We'll start them on buprenorphine and remain them until we can regain a place that will go forward their care," said Jessica Gregg, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of medicament (general general medicine and geriatrics) in the OHSU Medical school, who specializes in addiction medicine. "This is such a devastating crisis, let's just do IT."

Called Harm Reduction and Bridges to Maintenance, or HRBR, the clinic provides immediate, life-rescue medication to people suffering from addiction while besides helping all enduring form a long plan for continuing their care at a primary or specialty clinic in their community. The clinic employs a chockful-time care transitions coordinator and a peer-retrieval wise man, on with a start-time suckle practician and medical director.

"We require to provide medicine, and we also want to provide connection," Gregg said.

Right now, people with heroin operating room opioid use distract play up in hospital emergency suite with a variety of acute medical conditions. Unfortunately, they too often leave the hospital with their broken bones set but lacking the proven medications that ass treat their addiction.

The clinic follows a mold developed away Old Colony Unspecific Hospital and Boston Medical checkup Center.

Buprenorphine, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2002, relieves withdrawal symptoms, cravings and pain. Also titled Suboxone, it as wel normalizes brain function away temporary on the same target in the brain as prescription medicine opioids or heroin. It's unmatched of three medicines approved past the FDA for treatment of opioid dependence, along with methadone and naltrexone.

In contrast to synthetic heroin, which must constitute administered daily in a clinic, patients can leave the clinic with a yearner-term prescription for buprenorphine.

Gregg said the goal is to get patients started on medication and provide them with a welcoming space where staff can help connect them with current care with a primary or specialty like clinic that also has the ability to prescribe buprenorphine. Prescribing buprenorphine requires clinicians to obtain a release under Fed natural law.