The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department's weekly harm reduction clinic treated more patients on Wednesday than it has on any other day in its nearly one-year history, officials said.
This week the program treated 184 patients. Before Wednesday the highest number of patients the clinic had treated in one day was 166, Dr. Michael Brumage, executive director of the health department, said Thursday during a regular meeting of the Kanawha Charleston Board of Health.
"So this is a program that continues to grow," Brumage said after the meeting. "This is one way I think our health department is contributing to fighting the heroin and opioid epidemic, which is without question the worst epidemic I've seen in my lifetime."
The program goes beyond a needle exchange program and offers patients access to STD testing, flu vaccines, recovery coaches, health insurance navigators and other services that are offered at the health department, said Tina Ramirez, health and wellness coordinator for the KCHD. There's also a weekly half-hour training on naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of opioid overdose, Ramirez said. Naloxone given out at the clinic has saved at least 21 lives, Ramirez said.
Ramirez said the harm reduction program, which started Dec. 2, now has 1,400 unique patients.
The clinic has a 82 percent exchange rate, which means for every 100 clean needles it gives out, 82 used needles are returned, Ramirez said.
Brumage said the philosophy behind the clinic is to treat every patient with dignity and respect.
"By and large these are people that are not liked," he said. "Many times they don't like themselves."
Brumage said treating the patients with kindness changes them. Often when they first come in they don't talk much and avert their eyes when spoken to, he said. As time goes on, the patients become more conversant and interact more, he said. It's at that point that the clinic workers can start to connect them with options to help them recover from their addiction problems, he said.
"Our goal is to not just to reduce the number of viral and bacterial illnesses that are spread inside and outside that population but also to really get these people into recovery," Brumage said. "That would be the longer-term goal."
It's difficult to track how many patients from the clinic go on to get treatment for their addiction, Brumage said. The clinic is anonymous, so the health department relies on anecdotal accounts from recovery coaches who mention that the patients sought treatment.
The clinic is run on donations and volunteers from the community, including a $5,000 donation from the Kanawha County Commission. Officials are looking for grant opportunities to continue the program. Donations also can be made through the program's non-profit partner Kanawha Communities that Care.
The clinic is offered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each Wednesday at the Kanawha Charleston Health Department, 108 Lee Street East in Charleston.
In other health board business:
n The health department has hired Kady Rogers as a threat preparedness coordinator for Putnam County, said Janet Briscoe, director of epidemiology and emergency preparedness. Rogers is a Ripley native and a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College.
n Health department officials don't know yet whether Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's mid-year across-the-board budget cuts will affect state funding to the health department, said Lolita Kirk, health department administrator.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow at @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.