Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus recently launched the Comprehensive Center for Addiction Treatment, or CCAT, to address growing substance use disorders.
Anthony Accurso, medical director at Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, said CCAT has outpatient programs as well as intensive outpatient treatment programs, an inpatient medical withdrawal medical unit and rehabilitation units.
“Different strategies work for different people, and so having a large menu of options available for people with different types of addictions and different severities of addictions is important,”Accurso said.
Because substance use disorder can be complicated to treat, the goal at Bergen New Bridge is to put the services under one roof, including acute care and primary care, where the services come right to the patient.
“Individuals that suffer from addiction many times have other co-morbid conditions,” said Deborah Visconi, president and CEO of New Bridge Medical Center. “They either suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and other chronic diseases that they may not have had an opportunity to take care of. … we treat the disease but care for the individual, and they can get primary care, diagnostic care, treatments here, specialized care, all under one roof.”
The safety-net hospital will be able to treat individuals with every form of insurance, and use charity care to treat those who are uninsured or underinsured. “When addiction treatment is working well, it’s incredibly stabilizing, and it’s very rewarding,” said Accurso.
