Opening the “black box”: Four common implementation strategies for expanding the use of medications for opioid use disorder in primary care

Background: Despite the persistent increase in overdose deaths, access to medications for opioid use disorders remains limited. Recent federal funding aimed at increasing access prompts a need to understand if implementation strategies improve access. Methods: This is an analysis of data from 174 primary care clinics enrolled in a state-wide medications for opioid use disorders (MOUD) implementation effort in California. We examined clinic use of one of four implementation strategies: learning collaboratives, Project Extension for Community Health care Outcomes (ECHO), didactic webinars, and clinical skills trainings. The primary implementation outcome was categorical change in new patients prescribed buprenorphine. Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to determine the impact of clinic attendance in all or individual implementation strategies, respectively, on patient growth. Results: Clinics attending learning collaboratives, Project ECHO, and clinical skills trainings had significantly higher odds of patient growth (odds ratio [OR] = 3.56; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.78, 7.10, p < .001), (OR = 3.39; 95% CI = 1.59, 7.24, p < .01), (OR = 3.90, 95% CI = 1.64, 9.23, p < .01) than non-attending clinics. The impact of attendance at learning collaboratives (OR = 5.81, 95% CI = 1.89, 17.85; p < .01), didactic webinars (OR = 3.59; 95% CI = 1.04, 12.35; p < .05), and clinical skills trainings (OR = 3.53, 95% CI = 1.06, 11.78, p < .05) on patient growth was greater for Federally Qualified Health Centers. When comparing strategies in multivariate models, only the relationship between learning collaborative attendance and new patients prescribed buprenorphine remained significant (OR = 2.57; 95% CI = 1.12, 5.88; p < .05). Conclusions: This study reported on a large, statewide, implementation-as-usual project offering four typical implementation strategies. Clinic attendance at learning collaboratives, a multi-component strategy, had the most consistent impact on new patients prescribed buprenorphine. These results suggest that while a broad array of strategies was initially reasonable, optimizing the selection of implementation strategies could be more effective. Plain Language Summary Access to life-saving medications for opioid use disorder, such as buprenorphine, remains limited despite strong evidence of effectiveness. Systems and organizations often select from a variety of implementation strategies aimed at expanding access to these medications. However, scant research exists to enable these organizations to select the most effective and efficient strategies. Our study—within a large state-wide system of care—examined the impact of primary care clinic attendance in four common implementation strategies on new patients prescribed buprenorphine. Learning collaboratives were the strategy that most consistently improved outcomes. These results highlight the challenges to strategy selection inherent in implementation-as-usual systems-level approaches. The field needs evidence-based information on which implementation strategies are most likely to yield desired implementation outcomes.