Academic Journal
Efficient engagement: opportunities for mobile methadone maintenance in geographically underserved areas.
| Τίτλος: | Efficient engagement: opportunities for mobile methadone maintenance in geographically underserved areas. |
|---|---|
| Συγγραφείς: | Bonifonte A; Data Analytics Department, Denison University, 100 West College St, Granville, OH, 43023, USA. bonifontea@denison.edu., Garcia E; Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA., Soth S; Evergreen Treatment Services, Seattle, WA, USA., Ngo H; Data Analytics Department (student), Denison University, Granville, OH, USA. |
| Πηγή: | Health care management science [Health Care Manag Sci] 2026 Jun 17; Vol. 29 (3). Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Jun 17. |
| Τύπος έκδοσης: | Journal Article |
| Γλώσσα: | English |
| Στοιχεία περιοδικού: | Publisher: Baltzer Science Publishers Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 9815649 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1572-9389 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 13869620 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Health Care Manag Sci Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Bussum, Netherlands : Baltzer Science Publishers, c1998- |
| Ιατρικοί όροι (MeSH): | Methadone*/therapeutic use , Methadone*/administration & dosage , Health Services Accessibility*/organization & administration , Mobile Health Units*/organization & administration , Opioid-Related Disorders*/drug therapy , Opiate Substitution Treatment*/methods , Medically Underserved Area*, Humans ; Ohio |
| Περίληψη: | In 2021 the Drug Enforcement Agency changed regulations to reduce barriers in the registration and operation of mobile methadone clinics for treating opioid use disorder in rural and underserved areas. How these routes might best be operated and how many clients might be served by mobile units are open questions. This work identifies candidate dispensing locations from mobile units in areas that do not have geographic access to a fixed clinic. Optimal routes for mobile methadone are identified by solving a mixed integer program that maximizes the number of clients without access to care that can be served by a mobile route. Ohio is used as a case study state to explore the efficiency of routes leaving from each methadone clinic in the state. The approach is generalized nationwide, and multi-vehicle routes are analyzed. Between 48 and 68 clients can be served by a single vehicle in a day (mean of 60) under default parameter assumptions across Ohio. Similarly, nationwide routes serve a mean of 47.5 clients per day. The second and third vehicle routes from a clinic provide access to an additional 95% and 93% of the clients of single vehicle routes, respectively. The number of servable clients on any route greatly differs based on geography. This work demonstrates the potential value of mobile methadone maintenance in reaching populations without geographic access to a fixed clinic. Additional policy and funding changes are needed to incentivize the operation of mobile methadone units for serving rural and unmet demand. (© 2026. The Author(s).) |
| Competing Interests: | Declarations. Financial interest: Authors Bonifonte, Garcia, and Ngo declare they have no financial interests. Author Soth receives a salary from Evergreen Treatment Services (ETS) as Director of Health Integration & Innovation. ETS has supported this work with professional guidance, and has not commissioned, funded, or reviewed this work. Nonfinancial interests: None. Ethics approval: This study was conducted solely with publicly available secondary data, so does not qualify as human subjects research and therefore no IRB approval is required. Competing interests: The authors all declare they have no competing interests. |
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| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Access to care; Integer programming; Methadone maintenance treatment; Mobile health; Opioid use disorder; Vehicle routing |
| Substance Nomenclature: | UC6VBE7V1Z (Methadone) |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20260617 Date Completed: 20260617 Latest Revision: 20260726 |
| Update Code: | 20260726 |
| PubMed Central ID: | PMC13275589 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10729-026-09773-7 |
| PMID: | 42307869 |
| Βάση Δεδομένων: | MEDLINE |
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