Facilitating Alcohol Screening & Treatment (FAST)
Keywords
Practice facilitation; alcohol use; SBIRT; MAT
Type of Project
Practice Based Research
Summary
The Facilitating Alcohol Screening & Treatment (FAST) initiative, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), supported Colorado primary care practices in addressing unhealthy alcohol use through evidence-based interventions and quality improvement. The nine-month program included six months of practice facilitation, clinician and staff training, and follow-up assessment. FAST focused on implementing Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment, and Medication Assisted Treatment (SBIRT plus MAT). Through expert consultation, patient tracking, and practice transformation support, the initiative aimed to strengthen primary care teams' capacity to identify, manage, and treat alcohol use disorders.
Significance
FAST addressed a critical gap in primary care by supporting the integration of evidence-based alcohol screening and treatment into routine clinical practice. The initiative highlighted the importance of practice facilitation, clinician education, and systematic approaches to identifying and managing unhealthy alcohol use to strengthen behavioral healthcare delivery.
Impact
FAST provided a structured approach to improving alcohol-related care through practice facilitation, clinician training, and evidence-based treatment resources. The initiative aimed to increase screening, early intervention, and treatment for unhealthy alcohol use while strengthening primary care practices' capacity to identify and manage alcohol use disorders.
Translational Science Benefits Model* Benefits | ||
| Demonstrated: Benefits are those that have been observed and verifiable. Potential: Benefits are those logically expected with moderate to high confidence | ||
| Developed and provided clinician training and practice facilitation resources to support implementation of evidence-based alcohol screening, brief intervention, and treatment in primary care. Demonstrated |  | Health Education Resources
|
| Developed structured practice improvement tools, including implementation checklists, patient registries, and assessment resources to support alcohol-related care. Demonstrated | | Health Care Delivery |
| Supported the implementation of evidence-based screening, brief intervention, medication-assisted treatment, and referral processes for patients with unhealthy alcohol use. Potential |  | Therapeutic Procedures |
*The Translational Science Benefits Model is a framework designed to help public health and clinical scientists demonstrate the impact of their work in the real world. The Translational Science Benefits Model and Translating for Impact Toolkit © 2017-2023, created by the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and available at translationalsciencebenefitsmodel.wustl.edu, is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Implications for Reducing Health Disparities
FAST has implications for reducing health disparities by integrating evidence-based alcohol screening and treatment into primary care settings, where patients may face fewer barriers to accessing behavioral health services. By strengthening clinician training, early identification, and treatment pathways, the initiative has the potential to improve access to alcohol use disorder care, particularly for underserved populations, and promote more equitable health outcomes.