Baltimore Program Holds City Drug Treatment Centers Accountable

DrugStat, Baltimore's 18-month-old drug treatment accountability system, has increased treatment program success rates and has helped those programs reap $8 million in additional state funding this year, the Baltimore Sun reports. Based on the New York City Police Department's CompStat crime program, DrugStat is part of Mayor Martin O'Malley's (D) "high-tech accountability approach to city management." All of the programs monitored by DrugStat are part of the Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, a "quasi-public entity" run by the city Health Department that receives about $45 million annually from state, federal and local grants and oversees 53 treatment and 22 prevention programs. Every Friday morning a different treatment group appears before city Health Commissioner Dr. Peter Beilenson to review five different progress measures: the number of people in treatment, length of treatment stay, number of patients who test positive for drugs while in treatment, number of patients who leave treatment with jobs and number of patients arrested after treatment. Each group is reviewed approximately every six weeks. Since the launch of the program, one group, Northwest Baltimore Youth Services Inc., lost 20% of its funding because it was not treating enough addicts, and another group, New Fayette House Inc., lost its funding because it did not have "adequate fiscal controls." Before implementation of DrugStat, groups were reviewed and received their funding at annual meetings. The consistent reviews have given lawmakers a renewed faith in the city's drug treatment programs, whose efficacy was often "doubted" because the number of city addicts appeared to stay the same every year. "Until they kept track of successes and failures, you would be putting money into a program and not know if it was any good," state Sen. Barbara Hoffman (D), chair of the state Senate budget committee, said, adding that the program "helped rehabilitate the reputation of the city Health Department in [her] mind." According to Beilenson, all programs have improved since the implementation of DrugStat, with the number of those leaving treatment with jobs or job skills increasing more than 30%. Methadone clinics are also retaining patients for longer periods of time, indicating that treatment will be more successful, he said. That success led Gov. Parris Glendening (D) to ask for a $8 million increase in state funding for the programs this year for the second straight year. However, DrugStat only holds centers accountable for clients covered by BSAS funds and not those who pay with other means, leading some centers to complain that it does "not adequately represent the full scope of their programs." Muriel Brothers, director of Reflective Treatment Center, said, "When you take it out of the DrugStat context, it doesn't give you a total picture of what is actually going on. I am still not comfortable that the numbers are reflected the way they should be" (Francke, Baltimore Sun, 10/29). For further information on state health policy in Maryland, visit State Health Facts Online.