Hamilton County QRT says single contacts cut arrests and health encounters, cites multimillion-dollar savings

Megan Guthrie, director of the Office of Addiction Response, told the Hamilton County Board of County Commissioners on Dec. 16 that the county’s Quick Response Team (QRT) has produced measurable reductions in criminal-justice involvement and health-care utilization among people who survive overdoses.

Guthrie said the QRT — launched as a part-time effort after a $400,000 federal grant and expanded over time into four full-time units — has served more than 2,100 people through its post‑overdose response pathway since 2018. “Of that, 63 percent were successfully contacted, and 47 percent were connected or referred to services,” she said during a retrospective presentation (SEG 116–120, SEG 116–121).

Guthrie described a University of Cincinnati analysis that compared people who had at least one QRT contact with people who had none. She said people who engaged at least once with the QRT were roughly 30 percent less likely to be arrested over the next year than similarly situated people who never connected. “QRT referrals that did not have any contact were arrested at a rate of 29 percent; those that had at least one contact, their rate of arrest dropped to 21 percent,” she said (SEG 124–128, SEG 134–138).

On health-care utilization and cost, Guthrie said the county’s retrospective review of hospital encounter data for calendar years 2022–23 found a nearly 22 percent reduction in overall hospital encounters and a roughly 32 percent reduction in substance‑use‑disorder related encounters after engagement, which Guthrie characterized as an almost $5,000,000 cost savings. She also reported a reduction of 542 overdose ambulance runs that she estimated avoided $1,600,000 in ambulance costs, and said the post‑overdose response pathway produced about $6,200,000 in net savings over the two study years for the units examined (SEG 149–156, SEG 172–186).

Guthrie summarized program structure and costs: a single QRT unit costs roughly $200,000 per year (salaries and supplies), and the office operates four full-time units plus some part‑time staff and retired rehires to help manage costs (SEG 178–183, SEG 364–371). She also highlighted an intensive outreach program in Price Hill that started with 14 individuals and scaled to serving about 150 people; for Price Hill’s priority outreach cohort she reported larger percentage reductions in hospital encounters and a cited return on investment of approximately $3,100,000 for the program described (SEG 187–196, SEG 222–227, SEG 256–259).

Commissioners praised the QRT as a national model and asked about staffing and equity outreach. Guthrie said the African American engagement workgroup has expanded to 17 churches and that the engagement unit sits on the coalition steering committee (SEG 421–428, SEG 459–466). She also said many QRT referrals were on Medicaid (about 65 percent of encounters by payer type) and described partnerships with community hubs and the county’s fusion center to locate and follow up with people after overdoses (SEG 163–166, SEG 196–204).

The presentation concluded with Guthrie noting that the program’s measured cost avoidance and reductions in arrests and hospital use are part of the team’s broader work to connect people to treatment, recovery supports, housing and other services.

Next steps: Commissioners thanked staff and did not take immediate formal action on the presentation; several asked for continued updates as the county’s QRT program expands and as grants and staffing evolve.