Substance Use, Infection Treatment and Support (SUMMITS)

The SUMMITS unit opened in July 2021 as a one-of-a-kind hospital unit committed to providing acute medical care to people who have substance use disorders or addictions who need to stay in the hospital for long courses of treatment. The design of SUMMITS aims to provide comfort and relief during long hospitalizations, with addiction counseling and connections to early recovery resources available during and after the hospital stay.

SUMMITS clinicians include IMIP staff specializing in providing team-based, biopsychosocial care for vulnerable patients, as well as addiction professionals who work closely with the Strong Recovery Chemical Dependency program.

About Our Team

The SUMMITS unit is staffed by a collaborative multi-disciplinary team, that includes:

• Nurses with acute medicine and psychiatry skills
• Nurse practitioners and physician assistants with acute medical care training and interest in psychiatry
• Social workers experienced in helping patients with complex medical and substance use needs
• A pharmacist focused on medication interactions
• A credentialed alcoholism and substance abuse counselor (CASAC) who leads weekday groups and helps connect to care at discharge
• A peer support specialist who connects with patients using personal lived experiences and facilitates recovery-oriented conversation
• Hospitalist physicians board certified in internal medicine and family medicine

In addition to daily patient rounds, all team-members take part in daily a multi-disciplinary meeting where each patient’s individual needs are discussed from a biopsychosocial perspective. Emphasis is placed on harm reduction, challenges that may interfere with progress, and follow-up care.

Clinical Education on SUMMITS

SUMMITS is actively involved in training future clinicians and offers clinical rotations to medical students, nursing students, social work students. In addition, SUMMITS is a training site for pharmacy residents and fellows, psychiatry, internal medicine and neurology resident-physicians, and physician fellows in the subspecialities of addiction psychiatry and adolescent medicine.

Inpatient Referral Process

The SUMMITS unit accepts transfers from other medical and surgical services at Strong Memorial Hospital once a substance use disorder has been identified and the plan for medical care requires a longer-than-usual stay in the hospital. Referring providers should contact the G92 attending physician via internal hospital messaging.