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. 2025 Feb 5;20(2):e0317967.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317967. eCollection 2025.

Potential improvement in spatial accessibility of methadone treatment with integration into other outpatient substance use disorder treatment programs, New York City, 2024

Marcus A Bachhuber  1   2 , Chinazo O Cunningham  1 , Ashly E Jordan  1
Affiliations

Potential improvement in spatial accessibility of methadone treatment with integration into other outpatient substance use disorder treatment programs, New York City, 2024

Marcus A Bachhuber et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Background: Methadone is an effective treatment for opioid use disorder; however, its provision in the US is limited to federally-regulated opioid treatment programs (OTP). Expansion of methadone treatment into non-OTP substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs ('expanded methadone treatment access') is a promising intervention to increase access.

Methods: We performed a cross-sectional geospatial analysis of public transit times to OTPs, expanded methadone treatment access, and other healthcare facilities as of March, 2024 in New York City (NYC). We estimated one-way public transit travel time and compared travel times using population weighted paired t-tests.

Results: For OTPs, 38.2% (95% CI: 38.0, 38.4) of the NYC population was within 15 minutes and 79.7% (95% CI: 79.5, 79.9) was within 30 minutes. For expanded methadone treatment access, 72.1% (95% CI: 71.9, 72.2) of the NYC population was within 15 minutes and 97.5% (95% CI: 97.5, 97.6) was within 30 minutes. The mean travel time was 20.4 minutes (SD: 10.9) for OTPs and 12.1 minutes (SD: 7.1) for expanded methadone treatment access (difference: -8.3 minutes [95% CI: -8.5, -8.1]; P < 0.001). The mean travel time for expanded methadone treatment access was slightly longer than the mean travel time for dialysis facilities (difference: 0.22 minutes [95% CI: 0.06, 0.39]; P = 0.009]), not significantly different than Federally Qualified Health Centers (difference: -0.06 minutes [95% CI: -0.22, 0.11]; P = 0.51), and significantly shorter than the mean travel time to ambulatory surgical centers (difference: -6.3 [95% CI: -6.5, -6.0]; P < 0.001) and hospitals (difference: -8.1 [95% CI: -8.3, -7.9]; P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Efforts to increase access to methadone treatment in the US should promote expansion to additional non-OTP outpatient SUD treatment programs. Such integration is anticipated to increase spatial accessibility of methadone treatment substantially, greatly enhancing the potential for patient access.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Areas within one-way public transit travel time thresholds to opioid treatment programs, expanded methadone treatment access, and other health care facilities, New York City, 2024.
Note: Expanded methadone treatment access refers to all outpatient substance use disorder treatment programs including opioid treatment programs.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Distribution of one-way public transit travel times to opioid treatment programs and expanded methadone treatment access, New York City, 2024.
Note: Expanded methadone treatment access refers to all outpatient substance use disorder treatment programs including opioid treatment programs. OTP = opioid treatment program.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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