San Mateo County’s only methadone clinic could draw more patients and stop draining money from county coffers by moving from Menlo Park to a more centrally-located site, according to health officials.

“It’s really difficult to get to if you’re in the north county. If the notion is wanting to increase the amount of clients to reduce the amount of county support, it means finding a new location,” said Supervisor Carole Groom.

Groom and Supervisor Rose Jacobs Gibson sit on the Housing, Health and Human Services Committee which will consider recommendations about the methadone clinic this afternoon.

The San Mateo Medical Center’s methadone clinic currently operates on Willow Road, in space belonging to the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. The facility has an excellent track record in the location, Groom said, but is proving to be too far away for clients who can’t make the daily trek south to treat opiate dependency.

Approximately 270 clients currently receive treatment for addiction to narcotics like heroin, morphine, codeine, Vicodin, Oxycontin and Fentanyl said Steve Kaplan, director of Alcohol and Other Drug Services for the county.

At least 300 patients are necessary to keep the clinic financially viable, short of cutting costs in other ways.

Faced with an annual $500,000 operating bill from the clinic, county officials in March began looking at turning the 330-patient clinic over to a private firm and in June put out a call for bids. After reviewing three qualifying proposals, clinic members and Health System managers recommended the clinic stay under county care with certain caveats meant to keep service levels up and costs down.

The conditions include county support not exceeding $100,000 annually by June 30 and beginning a “realistic plan” to reduce the subsidy to zero by June 30, 2011.

Enrollment of county residents in the clinic must jump by at least 10 percent and the clinic must meet quality assurance targets for medication variances, positive urinalysis and patients incarcerated while in treatment. Evaluations of these three areas will be finished by June 30, 2010 and if it doesn’t meet the goals, the county will negotiated with preferred provider Bay Area Addiction Research and Treatment, Inc. with plans to shift operations within three to six months.

The quality targets are included to keep service at their current high levels, not because they are lacking, Kaplan said.

Keeping the clinic under county control is ideal, Kaplan said, because it provides a continuity of care and keeps intact relationships built in the seven years since the county took over responsibility for the clinic.

A key component to lowering county support is getting more people in the door.

“We think that if it were more centrally located, it would ease the access issue,” Kaplan said.

Groom acknowledges a methadone clinic might be a hard sell for some residents who bristle at the idea of a such a facility in their backyard. Ideally, a site would be in an industrial area away from residential space but public transportation is also important, she said.

The county must start education early to quell any concern, she said.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.  

   Info box: The Housing, Health and Human Services Committee meets 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the Board of Supervisors Conference Room, 400 County Government Center, Redwood City.