Adena Regional Medical Center (ARMC) has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) Medication Management and Opioid (MMO) Support Team as a “best practice” site for the hospital’s innovative Baby Centered Recovery Program. ARMC is one of just 27 hospitals in the nation to earn this distinction, and the only one in Ohio.
“To be nationally recognized is a great honor, as displaying best practices is what every group strives for,” said Donna Collier-Stepp, Program Coordinator. We are proud to be instrumental in helping others develop similar programs in the U.S. that will also make a difference in the lives of mothers and babies.”
Adena’s Baby Centered Recovery Program, under the medical direction of Dr. Ronald Lopez and Dr. Leroy Parks, works to help women move beyond their opiate dependence by encouraging social support, linking participants to community services and providing education about pregnancy and addiction. Medically-assisted treatment is offered, as well as a plan for the participant’s detox after her infant’s birth.
Program coordinators, Collier-Stepp and Peggie Marcum participated in interviews with CMS, which led to the Baby Centered Recovery Program being selected for inclusion in CMS’s MMO Change Package. These packages share proven strategies and interventions to improve the management of pain and opioid use in patients nationwide.
(Pictured left to right: Dr. Leroy Parks, Donna Collier-Stepp and Dr. Ronald Lopez)
Since Adena’s Baby Centered Recovery program began in 2012, Adena Women and Children’s Center has helped more than 200 opioid-addicted mothers. The program has earned other national distinctions, being named a “Program of Excellence” by the Hospital Charitable Services Awards, and was recognized on Capitol Hill, identified as a model that other communities should replicate.