Vice Chair of Operations, Dept of Internal Medicine | Medical Director, IDEA Exchange Tampa and Tampa Bay Street Medicine
University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital
Tampa, FL, United States
Since 2014, I have been the Medical Director of the Tampa Bay Street Medicine (TBSM) clinic for homeless patients in downtown Tampa, which serves an average of 800 unique patients per year. Our services are free to patients including primary care, prescription medications, point of care lab testing and confidential HIV/HCV testing, distribution of Narcan and substance use disorder treatment. We have partnerships with community resource organizations for mental health counseling, inpatient and residential addiction treatment centers and housing-first programs. In January 2021, TBSM gained approval from the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners to add a syringe service program (IDEA Tampa SSP) together with anonymous HIV and HCV testing and on-site treatment of HIV, HCV, and SUD.
Since beginning the IDEA Tampa SSP, we have exchanged over 300,000 dirty needles for clean ones, diagnosed 10 cases of HIV (100% linked to care) and 108 Hepatitis C infections (68% linked to care). We have also received postcards returned when Narcan is used from over 2,000 accidental overdoses on the streets.
Additionally, I implemented our office-based opiate treatment clinic in our internal medicine primary care clinics in October 2019. This integrates primary care and treatment for opiate use disorder in single visits for patients and involves training medical students, PA students, and residents from internal medicine and psychiatry in our management visits so that the next generation of providers will be comfortable and competent in treating opiate use disorder. We receive referrals from our partner hospital (Tampa General Hospital), our network of primary care doctors, the county jail, drug courts, and the obstetrics department at USF/TGH who diagnose numerous women with SUD during pregnancy and/or delivery.
IDEA Exchange Tampa and TBSM are engaged in several grant-funded projects to expand our services and improve the healthcare of unhoused citizens of Tampa and those who are suffering from addiction. Notably, we are happy to be partners with Dr. Hansel Tookes across universities to improve access to care for HIV and SUD.
Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose
211 - Ending the HIV Epidemic: Cutting-Edge Models of Care
Saturday, October 14, 2023
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM US ET
Saturday, October 14, 2023
10:30 AM – 10:55 AM US ET