National Addiction Treatment Locator Has Outdated Data and Other Critical Flaws

Kaiser Health News

At a psychiatric hospital in Michigan, Dr. Cara Poland’s patients were handed a sheet of paper to find follow-up care. The hospital had entered local ZIP codes on a website—run by the nation’s top substance use and mental health agency—and printed the resulting list of providers for patients to call. But her patients who tried to use it often hit a wall, Poland said. They’d call a number only to find it disconnected, or they’d learn that a facility wasn’t accepting new patients, or that the clinician had retired or moved. Read more