Making "stone soup": improvements in clinic access and retention in addiction treatment.

Background: The Network for Improvement of Addiction Treatment (NIATx) provides 39 treatment organizations with collaborative learning opportunities and technical support to reduce waiting time between the first request for service and the first treatment session, reduce the number of patients who do not keep an appointment (no-shows), increase the number of people admitted to treatment, and increase continuation from the first through the fourth treatment session. ACADIA'S STORY-TREATMENT ON DEMAND: Given capacity constraints, only 25% of the clients scheduled for outpatient care at Acadia Hospital (Bangor, Maine) showed up for their assessment appointments, and only 19% made it into treatment. A variety of changes were introduced, including increasing staff availability to provide clients with assessments immediately on arrival (at 7:30 A.