Kane McKeesport celebrates opening of special care unit

Allegheny County’s Kane Community Living Center in McKeesport will begin accepting patients to its new post-acute care drug addiction rehabilitation and treatment unit today.

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and several other county, state and McKeesport officials were joined Tuesday by Highmark Health, Allegheny Health Network and Gateway Health representatives for a ribbon cutting celebrating the opening of a new 45-bed unit on the third floor. The center, which is located on Ninth Street and was formerly known as Kane Regional and Kane Hospital, will continue to provide skilled nursing care to senior citizens and Alzheimer’s, hospice, pastoral and respite care and social services to all of its other patients.

The first of its kind in the county, the new unit will combine skilled care and addiction services for patients who meet national Nursing Facility Clinically Eligible criteria, requiring 24-hour care.

Kane’s skilled nursing team, which were hired only after expressing an “open-mindedness to treat people suffering from addiction,” will work collaboratively with AHN addiction medicine specialists embedded in the unit to provide medication-assisted treatment and supportive services, according Dr. Mitchell West, medical director of addiction services at AHN.

West fought back tears as he talked about how important the unit will be for Allegheny County residents who suffer from addiction and are recovering from hospitalization while simultaneously coping with substance use disorder.

He said the unit will provide them “with a good pathway forward.”

Mitchell, an emergency department doctor for more than 30 years, will direct addiction services in the new unit, and said many of the patients who will utilize it “have nowhere else to turn.”

“This is a big deal, a really big deal and I think there is still a lot of misunderstanding about why something like this is so important,” he said. “These are the sickest people I’ve ever seen.”

He said the unit will treat patients who overdose and have lasting medical conditions as a result; have accidents or trauma as a result of being intoxicated; or develop infectious complications from intravenous drug use.

West said the general public is typically under the impression that when a person overdoses, “they are either resuscitated or they die.”

He explained for those who have suffered overdoses, it is a much more complicated process that comes with a “deluge” of other health issues.

“There is a whole bunch of people who we don’t read about and we don’t hear about who are in the hospital because of having an overdose and they were reversed a little bit too late, so, maybe they have a brain injury,” he said.

He said many patients at the Kane unit will be suffering from Compartment Syndrome, a painful and dangerous condition caused by pressure buildup from internal bleeding or swelling of tissues that can lead to intense infections. Mitchell explained that often times, people who suffer overdoses lay on the floor for a long time before they are found, putting the undue pressure on their muscles, which causes Compartment Syndrome. He said eventually, the person has to have surgery and then several weeks of intravenous antibiotic treatments, which may extend beyond the patient’s hospital discharge date.

Many other patients will have kidney failure and will require dialysis treatment beyond their hospital stay, he said.

The bulk of the patients who will utilize the unit are suffering from intense infections that cause internal and external abscesses after shooting up with dirty needles, using saliva to clot their blood at the needle’s entry point and using contaminated water from rivers, streams, creeks, puddles and previously used water bottles, according to Mitchell.

He said there are many skilled nursing facilities in the area that have the ability to treat these medical conditions, and he said they do, but only on an outpatient basis. He said most skilled nursing facilities will not admit patients who suffer from addiction because they are currently taking Suboxone or Methadone to curb their addiction, and said those facilities often see patients on those medications as a liability.

“This is a big problem nationwide,” he said. “We are hoping to take away some of that stigma and treat these people, who are not bad people, with a little bit more compassion and kindness than they are used to.”

Suboxone is the brand name for Buprenorphine, a narcotic used to treat pain as well as addiction to narcotic pain relievers. Methadone is a narcotic that can treat moderate to severe pain. It can also treat narcotic drug addiction.

According to Fitzgerald, recent state data indicates that more than 12,000 individuals on Medicaid alone in Allegheny County have a substance use disorder related to prescription pain medications or heroin.

“Until now, following hospitalizations, these patients have lacked reliable post-acute care alternatives because traditional nursing homes aren’t equipped to manage addiction,” he said.

Dan Onorato, executive vice president of corporate affairs at Highmark Health, said he hopes the unit is effective and will inspire other hospitals and skilled nursing facilities around the country to open similar units.

“...We’re addressing the epidemic of substance use disorders on many critical fronts through our hospitals, physicians, health plans and through community outreach programs,” Onorato said. “This new unit at Kane will provide patients with the right kind of care in the right setting, offering high-quality, high-value, addiction-informed services and the positive health care experience necessary to heal and feel supported. We are getting health care right for these patients.”

Beginning today, the Kane unit will begin accepting patient referrals from AHN hospitals. Following an initial pilot, it will admit patients from hospitals across Allegheny County and, as demand allows, from surrounding counties, accepting coverage from all health plans.