In a response to increasing opioid-related events, Faster Paths to Treatment began in 2016 as a collaboration between Boston Medical Center (BMC), the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), and the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS) to provide better access to treatment and other services for those with opioid use disorder (OUD).

Faster Paths can be termed an opioid urgent care center, located inside a hospital that serves many of Boston’s homeless population as well as people with OUD, although the program services patients with any type of substance use disorder (SUD).

With a mission to integrate, enhance, and fill the gaps in the existing continuum of SUD patient services, Faster Paths aims to rapidly evaluate a person with SUD, initiating buprenorphine, extended-release naltrexone, or linking to an appropriate methadone clinic as clinically indicated. Next, the program, leveraging BMC’s existing SUD infrastructure, links the patient to a comprehensive network of inpatient and outpatient services that can address SUD, mental health, and medical needs. In addition, the patient will receive opioid overdose education including a naloxone rescue kit, follow up from a licensed drug and alcohol counselor, and access to both case management and recovery support services which can help address many of the social determinants of health.

Faster Paths can also serve as a bridge clinic when buprenorphine is initiated after an opioid-related event in the emergency department. An academic paper has shown that providing patients with low threshold and timely access to addiction treatment will increase the likelihood that they will engage in treatment. 

Faster Paths has recently implemented an innovative way to initiate methadone treatment for OUD while linking the person to outpatient treatment under the "72 hour rule".