Crucial Partnership Between MedStar & the Recovery Resource Council is Impacting Lives

Tarrant County (WBAP/KLIF) – A partnership between Tarrant County’s MedStar 911 ambulance service and Fort Worth’s Recovery Resource Council [rrc] is aimed at reducing repeat drug overdoses. Matt Zavadsky, MS-HSA, NREMT, and Chief Transformation Officer with MedStar, the over year-old program provides additional resources to overdose patients treated in the field.

After the initial emergency call patients get a follow-up visit by a MedStar Community Service Paramedic and potential substance abuse counseling from an RRC counselor. Additionally, families of overdose victims receive Narcan kits and are offered CPR training.

Since January 2022 nearly 260 people have benefitted from the program’s services.

MedStar has taken a look at overdose calls between 2019 and 20223, and the impact its partnership with the RRC is having:

Between January 2019 and February 2023, MedStar crews have treated 2,888 patients that the crew believed was suffering from an overdose, or overdose-related illness.

The number of overdose patients treated each day continues to be concerning:

To try and help reduce the incidence of repeat overdoses in the community, MedStar and the Recovery Resource Council have partnered on a special program designed to provide additional resources to patients who suffer an overdose.

A MedStar Community Paramedic and a substance abuse counselor from the Recovery Resource Council follow up on overdose patients that MedStar crews treat in the field. During the follow up visit, patients are offered substance abuse counseling and referrals to community resources.

Families of the overdose victims are provided with Narcan, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose, as well as CPR training.

Since the program started in December 2021:

258 people have received at least one program service.
176 have been connected to a peer support specialist.
189 families have received hands only CPR training.
175 people have received a health and wellness screening and were referred to other community resources.
623 Narcan kits have been provided to 178 families.

This initiative is funded though the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.