Buprenorphine Clinic for Opioid Maintenance Therapy: Program Description, Process Measures, and Patient Satisfaction

Buprenorphine (Suboxone®, Subutex®), a partial mu opioid agonist, has been shown to be a relatively safe and effective form of pharmacotherapy for the treatment of opioid dependence. Since its introduction and approval, however, few clinicians have described specific programs or approaches to long-term opioid maintenance therapy with buprenorphine, and fewer still have examined this phenomenon from the perspective of patient satisfaction. Here we describe a quality improvement project for a monthly buprenorphine clinic for opioid maintenance therapy, and have included demographic and clinical characteristics of the participants. Based on patient satisfaction survey results and supporting clinical data, respondents showed high levels of patient satisfaction, attendance, and treatment adherence in a multidisciplinary buprenorphine clinic for opioid maintenance therapy in an outpatient addictions treatment program.