Abstract
Nine Veterans Affairs (VA) opioid agonist therapy (OAT), or methadone maintenance, clinics were selected to participate in a multi-site facilitated quality improvement (QI) project focused on implementing evidence-based best practice guidelines. At baseline, project staff faced the challenge of developing a method for identifying and continuously monitoring clinical practices and associated outcomes of interest. The resulting method consisted of a Monthly Log used to track OAT patients and produce immediate, monthly performance feedback for clinic staff, and required minimal effort on the part of busy counseling staff. Combined with an educational toolkit and training, the QI package was named the Opioid Agonist Therapy Monitoring System (OMS). The OMS proved useful to clinics in tailoring and monitoring their QI efforts, and most clinics plan to continue using the revised stand-alone OMS after the project period ends. The following report describes the OMS and the evolution of the Monthly Log over a two-year period.