In August of 2022, the Florida Department of Health, the Florida Department of Children and Families, and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration began the Coordinated Opioid Recovery (CORE) Network, which establishes a system of care for individuals suffering from substance use disorder (SUD). Piloted in Palm Beach County, and eventually expanded to 12 other counties in August 2022, CORE provides a state-supported, coordinated system of addiction care for individuals with SUD.

The CORE Network has three core components. If someone experiences an overdose in one of the Core Counties, first responders stabilize the patient while transporting him or her to a specialty hospital or trauma center that specializes in addiction medicine. While there, the patient is connected to peer navigators who identify his or her short- and long-term needs. Once the person’s emergent health threats are stabilized, he or she is transferred to a “multi-specialty outpatient practice” to address and support his or her sustainable recovery. This includes starting the patient on medication for addiction treatment, if appropriate, delivering mental health and primary care, and providing connections to social services. The patient’s care and treatment plans are overseen by a physician.

Since inception, key stakeholders and health care networks across the state have connected numerous individuals with SUD with life-saving care in the 12 CORE Network counties. Within these counties, emergency medical providers connected 25,000 overdose patients to long-term recovery and provided approximately 550,000 services to support these patients. These services include dental care, primary care, psychiatric evaluation, maternal care, and social services that focus on career training, housing, and food insecurity.

Due to the program’s early success, Florida plans to expand the CORE Network across the entire state.