South Peninsula Hospital’s new substance use, misuse and addiction task force will meet for the first time at the end of this month. The hospital is forming a group of 12 representatives from emergency services, the Homer Medical Center and the local community, among other areas.
Derotha Ferraro is the spokesperson for South Peninsula Hospital. She said the task force will look at roughly 20 areas of the hospital’s care from birthing to physical therapy.
"So the first thing we'll do is find the scope of substance use, misuse and addiction in relationship to those areas, and then we're doing an assessment of all of those different areas," she said. "What the current impact is, what our response currently is and what the potential needs and opportunities are."
She said individual departments are already addressing concerns of substance use and addiction but this will be the first hospital-wide view. The task force will also research legislative and industry updates and mandates as well as available resources.
She said the impetus to assess substance use and misuse came from both inside and outside SPH. The Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnerships (MAPP) Community Opioid Task Force was seeking more information from the hospital on substance use. Hospital leaders also pushed for an internal task force.
The group will meet for six months.
"Our tangible goal is by the end of the calendar year, we will have a report that includes where we are and what our recommendations are for moving forward and would be presenting that ultimately to our board of directors," she said.
The task force will submit their report to other groups as well, including the community opioid task force. The hospital will also post the report on its website.
