Commission approves clinic to treat opiod addicts

Drug abusers who overdose and have trouble finding a detox bed soon will be able to get treatment at a new public clinic in Palm Beach County, a national destination for opioid addicts as well as those seeking treatment.

The County Commission on Tuesday approved a new Addiction Stabilization Center at JFK Medical Center in West Palm Beach. The center will be operated with the Palm Beach County Health Care District and is expected to cost the county $1 million in its first year.

Paramedics will take overdose patients who don’t have other health issues to the center, where they will be connected with therapy, rehab and outpatient treatment. Psychiatric workers will identify addicts’ problems, and medical staff will offer treatment to wean them off drugs.

Several Florida counties have been opening centralized public clinics as hospitals and rescue personnel have become overwhelmed with the ravages of the opioid epidemic. Broward County officials opened the Broward Addiction Recovery Center in Fort Lauderdale in

2015.

After seeing that fatal opioid overdoses increased from 257 in

2015 to 549 in 2016, the Palm Beach County Commission asked its staff for recommendations on how to save addicts’ lives. In a 2017 report, the staff recommended a central receiving facility.

The opioid epidemic led to an influx of addicted people to Palm Beach County. Touting the chance of recovery in the sunshine, private providers recruit out-of-state patients with lucrative insurance plans to South Florida.

But for the uninsured and those whose benefits are exhausted, the drug treatment safety net is woefully thin, according to a study commissioned by the county. Only about two dozen publicly funded detox beds exist to serve a county of nearly 1.4 million people, the study found.

The opioid death rate in Palm Beach County is showing signs of abating after years of increases. In

2018, the rate plunged 41 percent, to

326, down from 558 in 2017. Officials credit the widespread use of Narcan, a drug used to revive overdose patients, and high-profile prosecu-

tions of disreputable owners of drug treatment centers and halfway houses.

Nancy Bolton, an assistant county administrator, said the JFK center will have space for 10 beds. If those beds are full, addicts can be placed in other beds in the hospital, she said.

She said the clinic will bill patients’ insurance companies, but the county has set aside $1 million to cover the medical bills of the uninsured.

“We want patients to have access to care,” Bolton said. “We hope to become a model for what can be done for a medical crisis.”