MADISON, Wis. – The UW Health Compass Program, an innovative walk-in treatment location for people who use drugs, completed its first year in operation.
The program, located at the UW Health 1102 S Park St Clinic, started seeing patients in January 2024 and has experienced growth in both hours of availability and staff numbers to manage service needs, according to Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, medical director, Compass Program, and addiction medicine physician, UW Health.
The program, which sees patients who walk in on a first-come, first-served basis, was first open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesdays and Fridays. It is now also open on Wednesdays, with two providers staffing on Tuesday afternoon to allow for additional coverage, she said.
“From the beginning, the goal of this program was to meet people where they are and to provide a welcoming environment, and we are so happy to be able to make that happen more often,” Salisbury-Afshar said.
Upon opening last January, the Compass team quickly saw that patients were in need of many services that would help them manage their substance use disorders. The program was able to hire a social worker who has been a tremendous benefit to the patients served by the program, according to Salisbury-Afshar.
“Whether it’s housing, transportation, food or clothing, these are necessities our patients are requesting that are vital to their ability to be healthy,” she said.
In addition to the social worker, the care team includes a doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant, nurse care manager, medical assistant and peer support specialist. The clinical team can prescribe medications for opioid use disorder, provide basic wound care, hepatitis testing and treatment, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and basic family planning services. The program is not a detox facility, but the team will work with patients who need higher levels of care and help link them to those services.
While Compass is available to walk-in patients, they can also be referred to the program by a primary care physician, an urgent care, emergency department or state agency. Compass is open to people with or without insurance.
The program is supported by a state-funded grant that covers the cost of medical services, labs and medication treatments for substance use disorder for individuals without insurance. However, the grant ends in September 2025, and the program is in need of ongoing funding, whether it is another governmental grant or outside philanthropy, according to Salisbury-Afshar.
As of mid-March, the program had seen 128 unique patients since its opening, and 31 of them had their care paid for by the grant.
“The Compass program will continue without the grant funding, but it means some people may not be able to receive care with us based on insurance limitations,” she said. “We are hopeful we can find a funding source because everyone with a substance use disorder deserves access to life-saving medications and clinical services.”
