MORGANTOWN – The numbers tell the tale.
For each successful interaction a suspected overdose victim has with the Monongalia County Health Department’s Quick Response Team, the likelihood of that individual being connected to treatment services increases 12-fold.
It’s just one piece of data that supports what local, state and national addiction and law enforcement specialists have known since its inception in 2019 – Monongalia County’s QRT is not only working, it’s continually drafting the map for others to follow.
Initially created as one of five pilot programs launched in West Virginia to help stem a tidal wave of overdose deaths, the QRT has, on multiple occasions, been recognized by the U.S District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia for its efforts. QRT members have made presentations at numerous state and national events, and the team has mentored the rise of similar efforts in West Virginia and beyond.
By any available metric, it’s been a success.
But for years, those metrics were, by and large, anecdotal. There simply was no methodology to capture and report in hard numbers the impact being made.
So, QRT leadership got to work, starting as most things do in the world of local health departments — with a grant application.
In September 2023, the MCHD learned it was receiving $1 million from the U.S. Department of Justice to employ a full-time data improvement coordinator.
That individual, epidemiologist Jacob Workman, recently broke down some of the more pertinent, and digestible, data – including the statistic that opened this report.
In a nutshell, the primary goal of the QRT is to work with Mon EMS, peer recovery support specialists and a team comprised of individuals representing public health, law enforcement, social services, the faith community and other groups to follow up on suspected overdose calls and do what is necessary to meet the individual’s immediate needs, connect them to services and get them into treatment.
Across 2024 and 2025, the QRT was about 65% successful in establishing contact with clients.
“From 2024, our referral proportion is relatively high at 85%, but it increased in 2025 to 93%. So, out of the successful interactions we have with clients, 93% of those are getting referrals to services and treatments that they need,” Workman said.
The numbers provided by Workman break down as such – in 2024 the QRT attempted contact with 489 unique individuals. It successfully contacted 324 of that number, including 241 individuals for which there was more than one successful engagement. A total of 276 client referrals were made resulting in 212 client connections with services and/or treatment.
In 2025, the QRT successfully contacted 256 individuals in 398 attempts, including 183 individuals for which there were multiple successful contacts. A total of 238 referrals were made resulting in 196 client connections with services and treatment.
As of May 23, there had been 113 suspected overdose events by 100 unique individuals in 2026, including two fatalities.
Including the overdose follow-up efforts, referrals coming in on behalf of individuals who need assistance, and the various programs in place through peer partner West Virginia Sober Living, the QRT has had successful interactions with 146 unique individuals so far this year and made 472 referrals to treatment/services, resulting in 450 client connections.
“Something we talked about early on, you know, as we established the quick response team is what is success? You know, how do we actually show what we’re doing is working or not working, and how do we adjust to what the data is saying,” Assistant QRT Coordinator Joe Klass said. “This is kind of our attempt, a good attempt, into actually showing that with data … Of course, it’s never going to be perfect. It’s hard to get a lot of this field data. But I definitely think if you compare this to even two years ago, I think we’ve made a lot of progress.”
The DOJ, whose grant supported the data collection effort, agrees.
“After showing them sort of the analysis and the results of it, they’re really pushing for us to publish the results. So that’s something that we’re currently working on as well,” Workman said, explaining the numbers presented in his report represented the “10,000-foot view” of the available data.
“It became clear pretty early on that if we wanted to have good data, we would have to build the systems ourselves. We couldn’t rely on federal, on state. We had to build these systems. That’s why I think it’s taken so long. If we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we won’t,” Workman said. “But in many cases, there was nothing out there we could utilize.”
The goal now is to keep it going.
“We’ve not perfected what we’re doing, but we’ve got a good grasp on it. Our success, you can see it, and I think we recognize we need to maintain this,” QRT Coordinator Brittany Irick said, later adding, “I used to think that there was so much that we weren’t doing, but now we’re learning that we’re doing so much more than other programs are. It’s hard, because I think that we’re just constantly wanting to improve. We forget how much work we’ve done.”
The QRT is primarily grant funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the DOJ grant previously referenced.
“The CDC funding opportunity was the initial funding that established the QRT and continues to fund the work. We have received a six-month, no-cost extension for the DOJ grant, and we recently applied for another round of this funding, which will hopefully support the QRT for another three years,” Irick said.
