Certified recovery specialists in the Crozer-Keystone Health System are doing their part to halt the epidemic of opioid addiction sweeping the nation by encouraging people who come into the ER to enter treatment programs, writes Don Sapatkin for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The “warm handoff” transfers a patient who just went through a potentially life-changing event directly from the ER into a treatment program. This helps avoid patients being released back into the same environment that put them in the ER in the first place.

The program, one of the first of its kind in the country, is part of a concentrated effort by state officials and Gov. Tom Wolf. It was started a year ago with a small group of recovery specialists who were sent to an ER when overdose cases where brought in.

In October, Crozer-Keystone took over the recovery specialist team. Five months later, First Steps Treatment Center, a comprehensive residential facility, was opened in the Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

According to Sarah Falgowski, chief of adult psychiatry, this made handling overdose patients “a lot more seamless.” It allows for a truly warm handoff as emergency rooms, assessment, inpatient, outpatient, and transportation are all now part of the same system.

Read more about what Crozer-Keystone is doing to combat opioid addiction in the Philadelphia Inquirer by clicking here.