Rural-Urban Disparities in The Availability of Hospital-Based Screening, Medications for Opioid Use Disorder, and Addiction Consult Services

Researchers assessed disparities in the availability of hospital-based transitional opioid programs for substance use disorder (SUD) in urban and rural settings. They discovered that in urban hospitals 73.2 percent conducted SUD screenings in the inpatient setting, and 78.6 percent did so in the emergency department. By comparison, only 54.5 percent of noncore rural hospitals provided SUD screenings in inpatient settings and 65.5 percent did so in rural emergency departments. The study also revealed a significant disparity in the availability of medications for opioid use disorder and addiction consult services, with rural hospitals having far fewer resources.