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Treatment retention at trueNorth
trueNorth 2024 average monthly retention rate as defined by K682/K683 ministry codes in consecutive months.
Why does TrueNorth measure and publish its treatment retention rates?
Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is a long-term condition that needs continuous treatment. Research shows that staying in OAT for at least a year greatly improves outcomes like reducing overdose risk, lowering crime, and boosting employment. Unfortunately, many patients with OUD struggle to stay consistently engaged in treatment due to various factors within and outside the healthcare system.
While Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) is the most effective way to manage OUD, keeping patients engaged in OAT is a challenge.
TrueNorth has partnered with Casel Medical Services to develop an innovative virtual care approach to OAT that significantly improves both access to care and longer-term treatment retention.
There has been a lot of misinformation in the media, and even among OAT providers regarding the effectiveness of virtual OAT care. Measuring our treatment retention rates and making them publically available is a key way for our program (and other programs) to "raise the bar" and promote better care.
How does TrueNorth measure its treatment retention rates?
Ontario uses two special OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) codes (K682 and K683) to indicate a patient received opioid agonist treatment.
At trueNorth, we systematically monitor these codes every month for quality assurance and treatment retention tracking purposes.
In Treatment: 1 or more K682/3 eligible visits in the current month and in the previous month
New Patients: 1 or more K682/3 eligible visits in the current month, no visits in any previous month
Restarts: 1 or more K682/3 eligible visits in the current month, no visits in the previous month. 1 or more K682/3 eligible visits at some point in the past
Lost to Follow-up: No visits in the current month, 1 or more visits in the previous month
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