LEWISTON — St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center staff were perplexed when many of the spaces in its medically managed drug withdrawal unit were routinely vacant. It did not reflect the actual need for such services as seen in the community where many are in active opioid use, said Greg Bowers, vice president of behavioral health.

So, hospital administrators took to the community to figure out why the vital service seemed to be so underutilized, he said. After talking to many people they learned the intake process was preventing many from getting into the program.

“Everybody thought the care we provided was excellent … but what people were telling us is that getting into the program was difficult,” he said. “And the way we were structuring our admissions process required everybody to go through our behavioral emergency department and people thought that was not, at times, a pleasant experience because of the busyness of that service and the wide variety of folks we’re trying to care for in a fairly small space.”

As a result of what they learned, the hospital established the Rapid Access Center roughly three months ago. Since then, it has served 45% more people in its withdrawal unit, or 27 more people per month, he said.

Once patients are admitted to the unit, they typically stay between five and six days, with some staying longer depending on the length of their withdrawal, Unit Manager Ryan Marley said.

Anyone can call the Rapid Access Center and get prescreened, which includes answering questions to determine if they should come in for an appointment, he said. After that appointment, providers will decide if the person should be admitted at the hospital or elsewhere.

Even if someone is not admitted, St. Mary’s will still connect them with resources to help them get into and maintain recovery, he said.

Getting people into the withdrawal unit helps divert people from emergency departments or behavioral emergency departments, where people do not always feel comfortable, he said. It also eases the demand in those departments.

The unit also has recovery-focused programming for patients while they are in the hospital, he said.

“We have more recovery focus programming happening for the patients on the unit,” he said. “It’s not just a service that says we’re going to medically detox you and then try and get you down to the next step in your journey for sobriety. But also, while we’re here, what are we going to do in addition to just monitoring you medically.”

Once patients are ready to be released from the withdrawal unit, social workers help place them into treatment programs outside the hospital, such as sober houses, rehabilitation programs or other programs to support sobriety, Bowers said.

Part of the hospital’s success in facilitating someone’s recovery is working with community partners that provide those services, he said. However, sometimes there is a period of time after patients are released from the hospital before they can get into rehabilitation programs.

St. Mary’s is still working on how to transition and hand off patients to other services smoothly, he said. More residential treatment programs are needed because the ones in operation now tend to have waiting lists.

There has been growth in sober living houses but not as much growth in recovery treatment and residential treatment facilities, he said. With new Medicaid requirements recently passed at the federal level, it is still unclear exactly how all of that will impact treatment programs.

At the center of this new process are the staff members who work to make patients feel supported and welcomed, sometimes meeting them in the parking lot to help them work through nerves and hesitation before coming into the hospital, he said. More nurses, social workers and direct care staff are needed.

“It’s just such a more personal experience,” he said. “That makes us feel really good. You know, this is a population that many times doesn’t receive that type of help, welcome or treatment. There’s a lot of stigma … around that.”

To reach the Rapid Access Center call 207-376-3419. For more information visit stmarysmaine.com/recovery.